The Non-Prophet by Raisethon Episode 5: AJ Gindi, Renewal.

the following is my conversation with AJ gindy of renewal renewal is an incredibly vital organization combating kidney failure on the front lines facilitating life-saving kidney transplants while strongly advocating for both recipients and donors renewal is a perfect example of the Jewish Community coming together to combat a global epidemic in my conversation with AJ we talked about his unique and personal relationship with renewal his role today as Community Advocate and as Community Advocate what the future holds for Renewal hi good morning and thank you everybody for tuning in um I have the distinct honor of sitting here in the beautiful home of AJ gindy representing the incredible organization renewal uh this is a really unique organization and I Fe and I firmly believe and I hope that our listeners will find some inspiration some insight and hear an interesting story of an incredible organization doing really really unique and vital things in the Jewish community and Beyond so AJ thank you very much for agreeing to sit down pleasure to have you here um why don't you take me all the way back to the beginning the very early days of renewal where you came in your relationship and how that took us to today okay so renewal started back in 2006 which is way before I got involved I got involved in 2014 and how' I get involved by being a ky Dawn in 2013 renewal started the way the story goes from what I've heard many times over that the founder many meny Riner was approached by somebody that was in need of a kidney now back in the day 2006 there was basically two ways you got a kidney number one you on a hospital list you waited for someone they get hit by a bus you hop they had checked off on their driver's license they want to be a Kidney donor and they got and you got a kidney from that person if you happen to match him and if you happen to get to the hospital in time because the way it works just which is really insane they have three potential matches for that kidney they call all three people whoever gets to the hospital first gets the kidney kidney has a shelf life about 20 hours from the time that of the accident to the time they have to put it in so they got to get somebody there fast so it's a miracle that people don't get into accidents just to get to the hospital they get on time there's I'm sorry to cut you off there's three people waiting for every kidney kidney that's the way it used to be there's more than three people that's incredible more but they have over three that match the best those who was that get the cool and I don't know why it's always on shavas that they get the cool of course and it's a great story that I'll tell you in a little while about a lady they got a call on shabas but in any case so that's the way it was back in the day you ran to the hospital you hope you got there first and you hope it was a good match unfortunately when a kidney goes through the uh the trauma of death when a guy dies so that kidney died with the person the kidney didn't stay alive kidney died so now they got to bring that kidney back to life so to speak and then they got to put that in somebody so they only have 20 hours that that kidney is viable to be put back at somebody it's not going to last as long as a live donor and that's one of the downsides of a Kadabra donor some that died the other way is that people went overseas some how they found an agent and they they got it overseas so he was approached back in the day that somebody need a kidney and they would have go to go one of these two routes if he can help them you know you know people maybe he can help us raise some money maybe he can help us get involved so he came back and he told his wife the story he saw somebody in SCH told us came back told us wife the story and she says you know why don't you do something for this guy put an ed in the Jewish press father of six in need of a kidney type blood O whatever his type is and put it out there what happens what got L this is in 2006 2006 sure enough he put an ad in the paper and within a few days he got 30 people responded I'll give you my kidney to help this guy these smokes and one of them actually matched he said W this is incredible I can't believe that if I do one a year two a year I save two people's lives a year it' be phenomenal and then he put in Reverse head I have 30 kidneys if you need one Call Me Maybe I have a match and that's where we started that's clever identifying that there was a donor there was a a recipient but also that you had a database of donors at that point right exactly and pairing the two together it was phenomenal so where where do you come in so then in 2013 I became what they call the mystery donor they don't know how I got into the system they don't know how it happened and it's a it's a cute story if you have time for a story I'll tell you a cute Story how this whole day happened in my community there was a young girl that passed away uh her name was Stella lat she died at the age of 14 she needed a bone marrow transplant and they couldn't find a good match and she died so I'll Community decide you know what we're many of the people from the Middle East let's make our own database so in case this ever happens in our community again we'll have our own database of 30 40,000 people that we could try to test right so in the sum time which is very very busy in the deal area they at every before every event every week There's an event by someone's house for a certain charity whatever it might be they decide you know what we're going to set up a table and people will come there do a cons swap test and we'll have build our own database okay so I was going to an event one on one Sunday and there was a table there and they said Mr G you want to do it but you want to swab I said okay I'll swap you know I'm put three people on a line and say you know what I'm not going to say no everybody's going to say yes right so I swapped sure enough about six months later maybe five or six months later I got a phone call you know you did a swap test for bone marrow you happened to be a match do you want to do it I said can you please explain to you what it means to be a d bone marrow donor what does it mean I have no idea what it means he said well there's two different ways you do first of it's done in Boston and there's two different ways to do it one is they can actually scrape the marrow off your bone so well that sounds painful that sounds very painful yeah or they'll look you up to a machine like a dialysis machine they take the blood out of your system extract the marrow from it put the blood back into the system and you'll reproduce bone marrow and from that they can transplant that to the person and the healthy marrow that they pulled out would go right I said okay that sounds like a good idea I'll do that a lot less scraping a lot less scraping I'm more more into that for sure let's do that so they scheduled me for a date and a few hours later and then about two weeks before that transplant was supposed to happen they said we're sorry to tell you the recipient is not well enough to do the transplant we're putting you on hold we'll keep you in touch I said okay fine put that my mind was over roll the clock forward another few months later I get a phone call from renewal hello Mr gindy yes uh we have a potential match for you for a kidney donation would you want to donate your kidney and you hadn't swapped for a kidney I said okay that sounds like nice thing to do prob how Works what they have to do you going to get a phone call from Cornell uh Cornell Hospital they cool you down you go for an evaluation in the meantime we're going to send you a blood kit and from that blood kit we can get all of your antibodies and we can see if you're a good enough match for this person I said okay fine send me the blood kit so they send me a little white box and I'll tell you the truth the box came into my house I put it on the Shelf and I forgot about it wow I forgot about it got busy I was working whatever it might have been I forgot I forgot about the box two weeks later I got a phone call again from renewal hello Mr gy I said yes it's me that's renewal I said how are you she said you we send you that box did you ever get it said oh yes you right my toaster I had the Box she go please go to lab quest there's a lab quest in your area here the directions go there there's a script in the Box they know exactly what to do with it just go there and give you blood I said okay I went the lab quest gave Bo took my blood s it in 3 weeks later 4 weeks later I get a call for Renewal you're a good match you ready to do the transplate I said uh okay she said okay I'm going to send you for an evaluation you need to go to the hospital they evaluate you and I always tell people whenever I speak if you want to get a the best physical you've ever received in your life at for free no charge say you want to be a Kidney donor right they do an EKG a cast scan a body scan a blue Dy test they do a psychological test it's like sending your car into the mechanic yeah it's better the mechanic it's like sending it in for a total cleanup I mean they do everything to check you out from head to toe and I came back with a good report thank God and one of the tests I had to go through was a psychological test they send you through with a psychologist and her job thank God my cousin who did the TR did a transplant before me a few years before me told me listen when you go to that psychological uh test their job is is to break you they want to break you they want to see you really headstrong that you want to do this where you just got emotionally involved and you want to do it then you can regret it later on and you want to make you were pressured into it and some pressured into it you're getting paid so I said okay so I was I was a little bit prepared for this test so I go to the hospital and I did all the testing and the last one is I make everything the psychologist and she said hello how are you um so how much you getting paid I said getting paid I already mention anything about money is money here she why would you want to give your kidney to a stranger you don't even know go under the knife you have a chance of dying if you're not getting paid I said well I'm an orthodox true and I believe that you don't get paid here I'm going to get paid in the next World I believe in God and I'll then to get paid later there's no payment over here right she oh okay that's a good answer it's a very good answer but what about your children I said my children what do my children have to do with this said no if you give away your kidney and then one of your kids need you need a kidney later on you gave away a kidney that could save a kid to your kid's life Wow said that's a very good question I didn't think about my kids but I believe in God I believe if I do a good deed God will protect my children they'll never need a kid me right very good that's another good answer she told me and my wife who was sitting with me she say okay if for getet your children how about your wife and she really wanted to make it my wife's right there now now what you say put you on the spot yeah put me on the spot so my wife says I wanted to do this this is something that he lives he lives to do for other people I've been I was a president of Bim in the area here for six years I was president the show for 20 years and I really have dedicated myself to my community and helping Jews at at large he wants to do it he's going to do it she said okay you passed the test you're good to go so I called back renewal they got the results that everything else passed it was a good match I said can you just work around my schedule I have to be in January I have to be in Florida for I was working for Yeshiva at that time I was running a golf tournament for them I said in March I need to be an Isel for a B for my for my nephew can we do it in February she we're working my new schedule whatever you want and that's one thing rual does they work totally around the donor whatever is good for you if you're a Reby and you want to open in the summertime you want to do it in the summer you can't do it during the year whatever's good for you they're going to R around your schedule and sure enough my transplant date was s for February 5th February 5th 2013 is the day to Chang my life forever so I get to the hospital and renewal the whole time is saying you know we'll send somebody pick you up we'll bring you to the hospital we'll take you for all you test said I'm good I'm a big boy I don't need you to pick me up for the hospital I don't need you to pick me up for the testing I got my wife will go together ask one favor if you can can you just give me a hotel room in the city the night before because I need to be there 5:30 in the morning and I don't want to drive from Jersey to the city leave my house 4:00 in the morning going to be exhausted you give me a hotel room in the city I really appreciate that and sure enough right next to the hospital maybe three or four blocks away they got me a hotel checked out 5:00 in the morning I walk with my wife to the hospital I get to the hospital and um getting treed they put the gar on the blue with the thing around my head and on my slippers and the whole day I'm standing there ready to go right and sure enough David chisha who works for the organization walks into the door he gets to the transplant he's always always there early sadic of a man wants to be there at the time when the when the donor is there when the donor doesn't really know what's happening he wants to give the guy Assurance hey we're here with you we're not leaving you alone sort of a handholding a friendly face exactly a friendly face but I never saw anybody so I didn't know who he was right so he comes in he walks into the room and I see a guy with pis a beard so I thought probably he was the clergy from the uh the hospital her here there's a jewel in the hospital having a surgery so go see the guy give the guy a little whatever you had to tell the guy so he walks into the room and I say I said wow you're from the hospital you had to give me a br I said no no no I was renewed I said oh renewal you was renewal very nice thank you so much for coming very nice of you to come he said How's every go he said how the hotel was perfect I'm I'm feeling good to do this he goes you want to meet the recipient I said I can meet the recipient that's great wow that's unbelievable CU see I'm going to go next door he's in the room next door I'm going to go bring him in so just one thing let me just step back one one thing I want to tell you and this is something that they tell the donor they tell the recipient and that is that at the transplant any time until you're actually out you can back out you're on the gy going into the o and you say you know what ho ho I'm getting uh second Thors I'm getting cold feed my stomach is I can't do this just get up put your clothes on and walk out the door you have no obligation you're totally volunteering yourself to do this for somebody else you have zero obligation get up and walk out and they tell the recipient the same thing you should know that your donor is coming voluntarily he's giving a part of his body to you if he decides to back out two seconds before they put anesthesia on him and he wants to get out he's out and you cannot say word him so they tell that to the recipient as well okay now go let's go back to where I was in the story cuz you want to meet him I said great bring him in so he brings him in I said the man was standing he was there with his wife asiz guy I'm a safari guy and every s guy in my life he was some Queens I live in New Jersey didn't know him didn't never met him and he's standing by the door and I'd say was about 10 or 15t away from where he was and as he's standing there like he's he started to sweat a little bit he's mean the guy that's saving his life right and I tell David I said you know something those cons swaps are unbelievable they really they really work what cons swab are you talking about I said you know the cons swab the test that I took I went to to the event I took it a test and I said we don't do cons swaps I said you don't do cons swaps so what do you mean how'd you get me here how'd you find my where'd you get my name how'd you find me you know I took a cons swap test for somebody for bone marrow and then I figured they gave you my information and then you cross smashed me for a kidney that's all you did he said no we don't do calks I said one second now this guy is starting to sweat this guy I can see sweat stripping on his face his wife is sweating this guy's backing he's say this guy's this stone is backing out I said listen I looked at the guy I said I don't know who you are I don't know your name I'm going to do this I just want to know how they got me in this room he because though you probably went online you filled out a form and you wanted to donate I said I never heard your organization I never went online never heard of renewal I don't know who you are I got a phone call from you that I matched somebody how'd you get me so they put me in their book as a mystery donor his wife Molly came running at my wife charging like a bull and gave her the biggest hug almost crossed three of her her ribs says your husband's a Mal he's a Mal has said Mal down to this room to save my husband's life to say he doesn't even know how he got in here he doesn't know where they found them he came as a Malik to save my husband's life I can't believe it look what you're married to you know you think a person's on dialysis a dialysis keeps a personal life they say the statistics are after 5 years 70% of the people are all over in the world which means it's a clock thinking backwards it's going to keep you alive until if you're lucky to find a donor after 10 years 90 % of the people no longer alive it's not a way to live anybody first of all on a machine where your blood is being cleaned every single day three times a week four hours a day if you have a job you can't work how you going to go to work after that you're fatigued and if you're a housewife how you taking care of your children it's physically impossible and a guy's in a room with a bunch of other people and if he sees an empty chair that means that patient is gone right died there's people many people there missing limbs because one of the major causes of of kidney fail diabetes and diabetes C the the loss of Limbs and is so depressing and you're wondering there's got to be a better way how am I going to get out of here my family doesn't match I have nobody testing for me it's it's it's a hopeless feeling is this my life right and how many and how much more time do I have what I've been to people's houses I've been called to people's houses course they told me you need to speak to my husband he refuses to go back to the alysis he's not going he'd rather die he'd rather die first of all they say that's it's like fire running through your blood the AL the machine but it's filtering out the blood physically it's painful to some people must be to other people it's it's a total wipe out you can't function after that right I guess s like going through chemo that you can't function after that for some time but you you you chained this machine three days a week either it's Monday THS Monday Wednesday Friday or two Tuesday Thursday shabas no matter what you got to be on that you're not sh on Shabbat you're on a machine if you keep P for on your day you are a machine on your day you are a machine the no going to someone's house for suers to have a meal you are a machine you are locked into this machine not a way for anyone to live not a way for anyone to live so I can imagine what's going through this guy's head where's my Yeshua coming from and then you get somebody in a room that doesn't know how we got there I can not look up and say thank you right thank you that's how I got with r and then after that point they said you know what that feeling was so uplifting you want to be a part of it I want no I want to do it again and again and if that's you speak to any donor you have a lot of what of this we have 1,200 donors 1160 whatever I'm doing three transpl today three transpl are happening today literally today today three trpl are happening today but we have th over thousand 11 change donors you think about it each one has the same thing the only thing I regret is I can't do it again it's I can't do it again and then after that I said you know I got to get involved with this organization I got to get them I want to do more transplants when I first got involved they were doing 20 30 a year I think they peaked at 40 something a year and last year we did 133 133 kidney 33 successful kidney trans 1 33 successful kidney trans and that's even just the tip of the iceberg and the donors are okay the recipients are God everybody's doing well that's that's that's unbelievable I want to I want to take a little bit of a detour because you touched on something that I wanted to get to does renewal put an emphasis on obviously within the Realms of of people's Comfort level and all of that but is there an emphasis made to offer the recipient and the donor to meet there we always will allow them to meet sometimes it's a little bit emotional they both have the option the donor we've had many donors many many donors that say I don't want to beet the recipient let me just do what I have to do right I don't want to thank you I don't want any type of a reward here not even a thank you I want to just give and go home I'll tell you why I asked that and it's funny that you mentioned the reward component uh in a previous episode we talked with an organization called Nish the Nish foundation and what they do is they Advocate and they are at the Forefront of combating cremation they help people people get a kosher Jewish burial who otherwise would not and something that was unique that stood out in my research and my conversation with them was they're dealing not not even primarily exclusively with people who died their clients are no longer alive can can never say thank you they will never have that chance right and this is the exact 180 of that this is the exact opposite where donor and re recipient are often one room apart and there's that they're right next to each other and if they if they both agree they can literally have the chance to shake hands they can maintain a relationship even even thereafter that's it's my with my my with my recipient Mitch bouren I've been to his weddings of his children it's got to be the most surreal something that he would not have been to he would not have been to the wedding of his children for sure he would have been there and renewal facilitating not only obviously the delivery and the you know the the donor and the recipient of a of a kidney but the relationship thereafter is is something that's incred it's got to be incredibly moving and we tell lot we'll tell the daughter that wants to just walk away I said really if you want to walk away you can walk away but you need to let that person say thank you right he can't he can't carry that it's too asking him to carry too much on himself how could he not say thank you to you just let him say thank you just let shake your hand whatever it might be you you have to let him do that so what does AJ gendi and renewal today look like so um today I'm what they call the community advocate I advocate for people that need I go to different communities I'll meet certain people and I'll follow them through the steps of getting transplanted at the same token I'm raising money for the organization which the budget continues to grow when I first got involved I think our budget was maybe $8 or $900,000 a year and now up to almost 5.6 5. 53 56 in that area and it's going to continue to grow because the more we do more transplants the more money we need to do them we don't get any money from the government right we don't want any money from the government the funds that are raised though are not exclusively for the transplant there's there's a lot of if I if I recall correctly you do everything that you can renewal does everything that they can to make things easy and and convenient for the donor if I recall correctly I mean you mentioned they put you up in Hotel they make things simple for you they make they they put everything we take care whatever a daugh could think of that might be an obstacle is taking care of right you know what if I want to donate my kidney now my wife has to take care of me I have three kids at home in the summertime I got to send him to Camp no problems taking care of that's unbelievable if a guy is coming from La we just had a guy that donated his kidney we had a flying from New York to LA it was a week before Passover P we had a flying there and he ended up having to stay in La for Passover because the hospital wanted to monitor him for another week after that so he flew his entire family to Passover filled up this hole the the hotel we took care of with all the food that he needed and we took care of every possible expense a car whatever he needed was taken care of he had a free vacation while he was in LA it was ATI family but you know what we saved life you can't put a price tag on that well take care reimburse the wages guys at of work for two weeks how much you make give us your paycheck will reimburse your few wages somebody needs a nanny take care of the children at all whatever it is take care of the kids you want to go away for a few days after the transplant you can't hate you can't take the hustle and bustle of the household you got coming back to a full some sort of recovery recovery we'll send you away and that's if I if I heard you're correctly that's closing closing in on $6 million a year yeah that's unbelievable besid we do events right somebody needs a kidney we go out we'll fly out to Seattle we'll fly to La fly fly out to fly to Detroit Texas wherever it is right now thank God but that's another one of the steps that we've done since I was involved we used to be just like a local mom and pop store people from Brooklyn from New Jersey a few cases from Connecticut one or two from Philadelphia you know from like the tri state area now we're doing transplant Across America and now are we doing them Across America in the old days you had a fly here to New York so recipient lived in La you're got to come to New York you have to have a place to for 2 or 3 months cuz the hospital wants you to be here for that time period they want to monitor the kidney you have to go back and forth to the hospital twice a week so they want to make sure that you're here to do that you can't go to if you going back home if you're in LA and you're getting a transplant in in Colombia you can't come to the hospital every two weeks not going to fly twice a week they going fly back they want you to be here right so it's it was a big cumbersome for the recipient to come find the new D that in the meantime while you're here while you're testing find a place to stay so right now we're doing transplants where they are we'll come out to LA we open up with almost I think 31 different transplant sets Across America you don't long have to come here we're not going out to you right on that note what what practically what is the difference in renewals approach versus the traditional database of a hospital like you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation when somebody is on a is sitting in a hospital waiting for a kidney okay so let me explain to you what happens a regular person needs a kidney he's going to go to the hospital he's going to register with a hospital the hospital is going to put him on what they call the NK nkr the National Kidney registry which has 100,000 people on that list constantly that's that's yeah they're either taken off because they received the kidney or because they died exactly right so we had a somebody that we that was a donor uh not too long ago few months ago he was a donor and he was also involved somehow he knew people from the nkr and he was the daughter through our system and he tell he says you know I can't believe the way you guys took care of me from taking me to every appointment taking care of my wages taking care getting me help because I he lived alone getting me help to take care of myself when I was sick I cannot believe what you I was telling the nkr what you did and they said this is incredible this can you please get a zoom meeting with the people that took care of you so he called me up and says nkr wants to talk to you is that okay can we get a zoom meeting I said sure So he sets up a zoom meeting so you got a pictur scene you know way Zoom is all the different pictures on on the screen and I'm on the zoom meeting with mha G I think Josh stur two other people from my organization were there and he has six women from the nkr so he's the one that he's hosting this meeting so okay we're going to go around the room everybody pleased introduce yourself and this way get so one lady gets on she go hi my name is Barbara I take care of Northern Pennsylvania said hi Barbera nice to meet you next one say hi my name is Sharon I take care of southern Pennsylvania Sharon nice to meet you I'm Gloria I take care of eastern Pennsylvania my name is Rebecca I do Western Pennsylvania no one says I do fundraising for Northern Pennsylvania no one says I do fundraising for southern Pennsylvania I said ladies very nice to meet you my name is AJ gindy I do America South America Israel and Canada it's amazing wow what does that mean how do you find all the donors we have a database almost 3,000 donors ready to go I think we have the largest database in the world of people that are ready to donate from what I've heard the nkr has 240 250 people in America ready to donate trying to chip away at a list of 100,000 people right and we have three to 3,000 currently over 3,000 that are ready and now she say how do you do it how is it possible you can have so many people on your database I said it's a very simple solution if you can convert the world to Judaism you have no problem the Jews will do anything to save another Jewish life unbelievable you're Blown Away the the ratio of donor to recipient as it stands today okay so it's a good question because you would say well if you have so many donors there should be no waiting list right well there's the match this match so the the the situation is that only 30% of the people that want to donate make it to the finish line so 70% of those people that came forward they said they want to donate for one reason or another they're going to either fall out or they're going to have a medical issue on themselves that they cannot be a donor right we already have one sick person recipient the donor is put through such intensive testing to make sure that 100% healthy that when if if you extract the kidney from them their life going to change at all so only 30% of the people actually get through all that testing so if we have 3,000 people so we'll have let's say under 3,000 that gives us a thousand people that 900 people that are actually good donors and from those 900 people you want to find the best possible match I just look at the just take a kidy TR fill up a box exactly right you want to have the best possible match so that takes time right now from the time someone walks in the door to the time that they get a kidney it's under a year you want to ask me where we want to be 5 10 years from now yeah I want to have it done within a few months from the time that they come in my database our database renewal's database is so large that I could pick from a stock of people within minutes that when your phone rings that somebody needs a kidney you have a donor waiting exactly right that's that's go 5 10 years how do you make that happen by building our donor base to 10 12 13,000 people I think is very very very possible to do right now we're doing TR we're getting I traveled I was just in Panama a couple weeks ago uh to go help a lady with a case she had a son needed a kidney it was very very said case it was it warranted a flight to Panama because this lady her husband needed a kidney and two weeks before we were making a bench for a husband here in the states to find the kidney for him he had a heart attack and he died and then a few months later she found that her son K she said I can't go through this again can you please I can't I can't I can't go through this I can't lose a son I just lost my husband and so I I felt it was important to go out there to give her kuk and when I got there I met the chief Rabbi Panama he goes listen you're not just meeting this lady we have a few other people that need to meet you and I came back with nine cases in three days so we know that there's people out there that need help not just in America not just in Canada not just in Israel throughout the world whether it be could be as far as CCH be Germany could be anywhere right could be anywhere that they need us they just don't know about us yet and in those places where they don't have a re renewal out there they have the same hope that somebody had over here 20 years ago which is no hope right no hope so practically is is growing the database just a matter of of PR and you know brand recognition people knowing that you exist or is there a boots on the ground effort it's it's a definitely a boots on the ground effort and how do we how do we how do we grow the database when someone needs a kidney we make an event around that person and then when you make an event around that person you attract 200 people 300 people so ruin needs a kidney so we we go to Ru ruvan lives in Queens so we go to Queens and we make an event inviting the community of Queens to come get tested we make a big splash about this guy Ruben he's a father of seven he's got 12 grandchildren he's a DI need of a kidney if he doesn't get one he's not going to live too much longer come help save ru's Life we'll make it in a Sho or make it in a hole whatever whereever we could attract get as many swabs as possible people come and they swab if we're swabbing for a child a two or threeyear old child we can get five 600 people at a time right now some people like comeing for the child so I can't put them in my my my general database for anybody else I'm coming for this kid if I match the kid I'm good if I don't match the kid I'm out wow is there that distinction at the time of the on on the on the form that they fill out are you coming exclusively for this person or do you want to go on the data base and match anybody wow so people need to if somebody is donating is volunteering to potentially donate their kidney to ruane they check that box but if they want to be kept in a database if somebody else comes up in the future where they a match they check another box right so initially I would say you know back in the day people were coming for people as the word gets out that you could do this you could live a normal life and you're not going to have there no side effects I don't take any medication right I I for one I have a scotch today I don't drink Scotch but for one doesn't doesn't affect me that goes through the liver anyway but I there's no downside I play ball almost three or four times a week I'm playing I'm actively playing sports you're in good health there's no downside you got to stay healthy you got to drink a lot of water eat the right foods but not nothing less than anybody else but have to do but people come for people in the beginning now people see you know we'll go to a neighborhood we came back from Baltimore where we honed I think maybe 20 donors from Baltimore Baltimore started one donor one became two two became four and we did an event honoring these people and sure enough we had another 300 people say I want to be like them if he could do it if she could do it my friend could do it why can't I do it so there's the donor engagement after they're donating their kidney in the form of an event of of honoring them and then every year and once a year we make a shabbaton for all the donors wow huge sh with but they we go to Connecticut we take over the whole place and you we got to see some of these pictures that we have four five 600 people they all have one kidney they gave their kidney to save s's life it's such a and then they go out they charged up and they tell their friends and they get more more dollars and they're in they're in a a shabbaton in a in a fun wholesome environment with people who have gone through what they went through and Sh sh stories and so on and so forth what is the you mentioned the 6 million closing it on $6 million to grow this database and to grow the day-to-day operations of renewal that budget can become 105 million in a heartbeat very easily if we get step it up to do 250 300 transplants a year then that's for sure that's what the budget's going to be what does the fundraising conversation look like I would imagine it's not as it's not as simple as you know we're grow we're building a Yeshiva we're building a mkah it's it's it's a different a whole different conversation it's a different I speak a lot of different shs I do my fundraising especially through the water Community that's where 90% of the fundraising con from is from my community and that's how renewal really start took off when I got involved and it was an easy sale for me because I'm a Kidney donor right I'm talking to people I I'm not just talking I did I walked I did it myself so when I speak to I speak in a sh and I'll give a story of someone that La lat was on the brink of death to be found the kidney for them and they'll hear it and I tell them how fortunate they are that they're on the other side of the fence and I I said you have two choices I said tell me you have three choices number one you give me a kidney number two you can write me a check or number three you can tell me there are two more things that I'd like to cover you mentioned that today literally today there are three three transplants happening yes this was months and months if not more of preparation on both sides on the sides of the donor of the recipient walk me through a little bit of the prep on both sides how that actually transpires and where renewal plays a role there well when we have three transplants you got to the end of the game I mean the end of the game is when the CH with the kidneys in the person right but as far as you guys are concerned this is a win what did it take to get to these three transplants how many donors do we have to go through that we took through the process through all the evaluations and then they came out at the end of the day disqualified so now you we could go through sometimes eight n $10 do this over and over and over again at our expense the recipient just we don't tell recipient anything we don't tell oh by the way we're taking another donor today and we'll keep it posted because they're excited and then you P them back in next week that's got to be you can't you can't do that so they have and it's happens to be something that recipients complain about until they understand the reason why we do it but like they tell us we don't hear a word from you you know what's going on then all a sudden I get a phone call we're matched why' you guys tell me what's going on because if we told you what's going on you'd be going through an emotional roller coaster it's impossible right the average donation goes through how many applicants I'd say at least uh six seven people wow they wouldn't be able to handle that yeah I mean their life is on the line the moal we got a guy it didn't go through we have a guy it didn't go through we found a lady fell apart it's so the months leading up to this what does that look like on the on the donor's end on the donor's end well he's being prepped for his for his evaluation it's a a little bit ner nerve-racking the one of the biggest uh challenges we have is a spouse for sure that's more than diabetes more than having kidney stones or having kidney failure in in history of the family is the spouse a lot of times the guy says that my waitress won't let me do it I can't do it she won't let me do it and I want to do it but the husband the wife would say my husband doesn't let me do it they're afraid I mean I don't know what they're afraid if we have women that are afraid they're not going to be able to get pregnant again and we've seen time after time that women that were not pregnant got pregnant if they gave the they Don their kidneys they want to I want to get married first we had this young lady she was 19 years old she donated a no uh she was 21 years old she wasn't married and she came to meet her her recipient in an event that we had she spoke for a few minutes what have meant to change her life and she said people came up to me said why would you do she not even married yet and now you have these scars on your on your body why would you do that for and I say scars I don't I don't know scars I have beauty marks wow these are beauty marks and she's right if this shows if this would tell somebody this is the wife you be marrying the selflessness the selflessness of a of a person it's unbelievable what would you like to see in an Ideal World I'm sure that you encounter a lot of push back you you know people have a finite amount of money and they want to put it where they can see the most return or you know just like any investment you want to you want to invest in where you will see a return you want to donate to something that will Garner a return that conversation I mean I'm I'm sure that you know God put you in this world and he gave you this responsibility that can't be an easy one right so when I speak to people I said I'm not asking for money for R&B I'm not telling you you know I might have a cure for 25 years from now I can take care of kidney failure I will have a c I said what doing today every dollar you're giving me is saving someone's life today not in 20 years from now maybe it might work we're going to get atda approval we'll see what's going to happen it's happening today we having three TRL today what what are the numbers on these three transplants if you don't mind me asking ballpark what was it ques yeah uh if it's a local transplant if it's being done locally it's about $20,000 and if it's in the National transplant it's about $26,000 per transplant that's only for the expenses to make it happen you have to understand something also when we're doing transplants we're doing on a generalized uh format we're not telling people you got to come here like I explained to you earlier right and we're not just deal with one hospital right now we deal with the top hospitals in America whether it be northwell Colombia NYU uh my not Mount siai M these are top recognized transplant centers they open up the doors for us because we did all the work they're just performing the mar ceremony we did the dating the shotan we Brak the people match just officiating just officiate the ceremony right and it's a big ticket for them the transplant is a very big ticket for a hospital they really value what we bring to the table and they can't believe it what K it is Jew Jew Jew walking giving up their kidneys person is going under the knife giving a Parton a vital part he's not giving a thumb pinky a vital part of their body that without that vital part of their body something can happen to them right and the reason why they're doing is because they have two the relationships that you touched on between all these hospitals is I I would assume of great importance to Renewal maintaining that relationship making sure that when you call the CEO of Cornell or whatever the hospital is that you mentioned they know who you are they answer the call they know that you co and we we've called them if we need if we need to pull a favor on on a different case let say we have somebody that's there with a a heart issue or different different type of blood disease we have connections to make things happen does that advocacy happen beyond the kidneys yes for sure that connection does happen here we we're our on our first name and on a on a cell phone basis with all the surgeons all the transplants set the surgeons they all know us by first day and they all we deal with them on a daily basis I mean they see us almost every day and the level of respect that they have for Renewal tremendous tremendous respect that they have for the Jewish Community is tremendous the kid hasem is is it's unbelievable it's Jews creating matches between Jews and Jews who want to just save a life correct and we've had we've had Duke University come do a study on us because they wanted to replicate dud this and other communities we had a very big Pastor I forgot his name uh from an African-American Community because yes you should know kidney disease affects African-Americans I think two or three times more than regular white people for some reason I'm not exactly sure why but they he came to us said I gotta do I I do this I have to do this in my church I have to I I have to save people's lives can't get it done wow and we've had there's a basketball play currently that needs a kid his name is Nate Robinson wow Nate Robinson played for the Knicks few years ago he was he's a three time three time the Slam Dunk champion Slam Dunk champion not even Michael Jordan can say he did that right n Rob he's a little guy he's a little guy 5 foot n Nate Robinson he's pleading for his life you can Google it pleading I have two years left to live somebody please give me your kidney please cry he happens to be a very very humble guy if you watch his I I watched him make his play God blessed me he gave me a great career I had a lot of fun and if this is the way it ends this is the way it ends please somebody please save my life you would think that somebody wants I want my kidney not me personally but a part I want my kidney to be in this guy right W I'll own him for the rest of his life he's got to be grateful to me forever nobody's coming through nobody's stepping forward and I tell people if his name was n Nathan Rosenthal he'd have a kidney in months that's remarkable you can't you can't pay enough to be part In This Cloud to beay part of Cl it's unbelievable let's close it out with something that you'd like to tell our listeners something that they might not know or something that you would like them to know about renewal if they don't yet okay so something I need to know is that renewal is there for everybody and unfortunately this disease this life-threatening disease can affect anybody we've done two-year-old children and try to find a match for a 2-year-old child somebody's not coming with their 2-year-old and say oh I heard you need a kidney My Little M will give you his kidney if you buy him a toy it's not happening so children are probably the most difficult cases that we had and we've done about 10 15 cases already for children anywhere from children two years old we've done cases as far as 86 year olds from that's that's the Gap from 2 to 86 and 86 is a world is a world record we broke the world record at 82 then we broke the world record 83 then we broke the next World Record 85 our own records we're breaking our own records and 8 6 86-year-old patient getting a new kidney is that what is that what that number recipient a recipient right so some people will say why would you want to waste a kidney in an 86 year old person give it to somebody else I said what if was your grandfather what it be a waste but was your grandfather would be a waste you get another 20 years let let him go for another 10 15 years why not let him live another 10 years another 10 are putting onet the T the same bras whatever it might be let the guy let it live let the guy live we have people that come to us find me the oldest person on your list I want to give to him cuz I know he's got no shot I know he's got no shot I would have be don't want to give to him so I want people to realize that this is a disease that can affect anybody nobody's immune to it we've had patients that come to all I did is I went to the do went to my regular physical you're sample I gave this some blood and they told me I'm having kidney failure I can't believe it I can't believe this happening to me from where I just good I feel good nobody's Beyond this and unfortunately some families we've done families because there's a disease called PKD polycystic kidney disease which is hereditary and we've done families 10 12 people in a family that we've done Aunts Uncles nephews in the same family because it was hereditary is passed out and we've tested some of the children and we know in the future they're going to need imagine where these people going to go a family of 10 12 people that got kitties you're not going to find this in the world the whole that we give them that but we not only give me hope we give you life right and hasem has given us the Capac capacity to do this we really have found it's all from We Know It's all from Shay but Hashem has made us the messengers to fulfill this and we we feel so chosen I have people come to you have he said you have the luckiest and the best job in the world all day long you see Miracles we and the case every case is a miracle how it happens how people met how we found a match how I don't have time for a quick story but we had a lady that needed a kidney and she was told uh she went for a blood test regular birth anual physical whatever it might have been she went to the doctor and they got the results and the doctor says I think you should come into the office we need to talk and her husband came back with her goes I think I should bring the whole family she has 11 children she comes back to the hospital with the 11 the doctor with 11 children and what's what's going on goes it's a bad situation what do you mean what's what's bad we got black back your blood work you are in need of a kidney your cranon is at this your GFR is at that these numbers out of whack and due to your blood disorder you're probably never going to find one there's maybe 300 people in America that match you maybe 300 people if 330 million people in America there's maybe 300 people that match you and out 300 people to find the match and now they have to donate to want to donate literally one in a million it's it's not happening it's not gonna happen what what should I do you're GNA go on dysis I'm with just want to enjoy life little bit of life you have left should there's nothing to do but there's one organization renewal that's the only one that could really help but if even for them it's impossible she calls us up the husband calls us up devastated can you help my wife can you can you do anything I said forget what the doctor said we have our own database we're going to find your wife a kidney she comes in we get the blood work from the hospital HLA all in her antibodies we cross matcher against ourti system had a match imp Poss we don't have one match for this lady run it again not a match okay we told don't worry we're going to find that we're going made a V and we had 120 people that came to Tesla sure one day he calls me out is this my wife just got back from dialysis and I can't I can't talk to her she's devastated life is over she's going to die on the machine I says AJ can you please can you talk to her I said sure put her on the phone WS up the phone I said CLA what's going on she said AJ I'm like go I can't I can't do this anymore I'm not going to live like this there's not a way for person to live I hate that machine everybody I'm surrounded by people that are dying I can't live I said CL if you stop going you're not going to give us a chance you got to give us a chance to save your life first of all we have 11 kids let those kids cry out to Hashem to heill him reading crying praying we only need one kidney GL I don't need six kidneys I need one kidney for you there's a kidney out there we just have to find it he had to go back on that machine and stay on that machine till we find it she I'm going to go back but I want you to promise you one thing AJ I said anything you want she say promise me you're not going to let me die in The Machine I said CL ask ask a lot ask him for a lot I could promise you I'll try everything I'll do everything in the world to find you a kid me but I can't make that promise Hashem at the end of the day Hashem runs the world I'll do everything possible R another event for somebody else in Lakewood another person in the KY a handful of people came for for that event one of those people mastered her wow one of those people matched just need one match and hope and pray we side andbody El and that story has a happy ending she had a kitty that's amazing you really do have the best job in the world do you believe that I truly believe it yeah that's incredible it's a gift I don't know what I don't know what I deserve it whatever it might be my father my grandfather but somehow Hashem put me in this position and I'm able to do the best I can amazing AJ gendi representing renewal thank you very much for your time thank you um I hope that you guys found something inspiring I certainly did and we'll see you next time thank you sh call [Music]