She Could Have Stopped at Saving Her Husband -- Instead They Joined a 5-Way Kidney Swap

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

She could have stopped at saving her husband. Instead they joined a 5-way kidney swap.:

When Tara Berliski learned her husband needed a kidney, she did what she said any spouse would do: She offered him her own. And they were a match. But John "HB" Berliski, it turns out, could match with just about anyone.

John Berliski has type AB blood, which makes him a universal recipient.

[...] "AB blood types can receive from any donor. And we have AB donors as well, but they're very hard to match because they can only give to AB patients," said Valerie Jackson, the living donor coordinator at Houston Methodist hospital. "So when John said, 'Yes, I'll go ahead and help whomever,' because of the power of his to receive from anybody, we were really able to move people who were not able to get moved and match up for years."

According to npr:

Justin Barrow, a 40-year-old youth pastor in Longville, La., has a rare kidney disorder, and had a transplant when he was 15; it was beginning to falter. A cousin offered to donate their kidney, but doctors said it wasn't a good match. A kidney from Tara Berliski would be.

Returning to our original story:

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.