

There are more than 100,000 people on the list waiting for an organ in the United States, according to government statistics. Living donors can now donate parts of their lungs and liver, as well as a kidney.
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Renee Bruins of Clarksville, Tennessee, was 33 years old — a wife and mother of two young children — when she turned her life around in a local parking lot.
“I passed this car that had a magnet on the driver’s side door that said, ‘Blood type O negative, kidney donor wanted,'” Bruins says. Call this number.’ “And I said to myself: ‘Actually, I have blood type O-negative.’”
Bruins took a photo of the magnetic sign and went about his daily work. She says she didn’t think about it any further until the next day. While on a break from work, she started scrolling through the photos on her phone and the photo popped up.
“I tell someone at work and they’re like, ‘You’re crazy,'” Bruins says. “But I thought I’d go ahead and … just do the initial test and if that’s a match, then I feel like it’s meant to be.”

Rene Bruins
Bruins family
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Bruins family
Only about 300 to 400 Americans annually donate a kidney to someone they don’t know. It’s an act that could be described as “extraordinary altruism,” says Abigail Marsh, who studies altruism as a neuroscientist at Georgetown University.
It turns out that the Bruins, He was A perfect match for the guy whose car magnet she saw. After learning that a healthy person only needs one kidney to thrive, she was sold. But her family? Not much, she says.
“The craziest part about it is really convincing everyone,” says Bruins, now 39. “I already knew this was what I wanted to do. But it appeals to everyone.”
Kidney donation usually involves laparoscopic surgery and is considered relatively low-risk. However, complications can occur, including infection and blood clots.
Extraordinary generosity
Giving an organ to a complete stranger requires an extraordinary level of generosity, says Marsh, the neuroscientist.
“Exceptional altruism, I define it as altruism that is typically too risky or too costly and non-standard,” Marsh says. “It’s something you rarely see people engage in.”
Marsh first began studying altruistic kidney donors in 2010. Her interest stemmed from her previous research on psychopathy — a personality disorder characterized by antisocial behaviors including callousness and lack of empathy, or the inability to understand and feel the emotions of others.
“We know that psychopathy is a spectrum,” Marsh says. “And I started to think… if you have people who are so mentally ill on one side, I wonder what’s the opposite?”
Thus began her brain imaging studies of extraordinary influential people. Marsh Early research found The size of the right amygdala – an area of the brain that processes emotions – is larger than average, indicating a greater capacity for empathy.
“We’re done Other research “It shows that altruistic kidney donors are more empathetic to the pain of others,” she says. “The patterns of brain activity we see when they are in pain look very similar to the patterns when they watch a stranger in pain.”
This feeling they have when they see strangers in pain is what distinguishes them from most people. Extraordinary influencers care deeply about the well-being of others – including those to whom they have no connection.
“And the behavioral research we’ve done suggests that’s because they’re actually less selfish,” Marsh says.
The gift of life – twice
Then there are those who take their altruism one step further by becoming two-time organ donors.
Tom O’Driscoll, 60, of Sugarland, Texas, is one of very few Americans to have donated his organs to two different people.
“In 2010, I donated my left kidney to a stranger at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles,” he says.

Tom O’Driscoll
Tom O’Driscoll
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Tom O’Driscoll
Then, two years ago, O’Driscoll donated 60% of his liver The organ that renews He returns himself to his original size and his ability to help save someone else he doesn’t know.
Liver donation Surgery is more invasive Of kidney surgery. It involves open surgery and five to seven days in the hospital. Recovery can take up to eight weeks – about the same time it takes for the donor’s liver to grow back.
O’Driscoll says the reason for donating to two strangers is simple:
“The need is very, very great,” he says. “It’s over 100,000 Americans currently On a waiting list for a kidney or liver, about 17 Americans die every day from not having an organ.”
O’Driscoll says being able to donate healthy organs has given important purpose to the years he spent staying fit as a triathlete. As he is quick to tell anyone who asks, organ donation has not stopped him from competing.
“I ran all 10 Ironman races with one kidney, and I ran my tenth race nine months after liver donation surgery,” he says.
But the best part, O’Driscoll says, is “the quiet satisfaction of knowing you’ve saved another human being’s life.”
“This is something I wouldn’t give up for the world,” he says.