Despite holding the presidency of the student council and being voted most likely to succeed, 16-year-old Shawn Moyer had his prom night invitation declined.
Moyer needed a backup, and though he didn’t know it at the time, the young lady with ringlet curls and an ear-to-ear smile he found would end up saving his life 35 years later with a kidney donation.
Key to this remarkable story is the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s (UPMC) innovative “paired exchange program.” Let’s say you want to donate a kidney to a friend, but the two of you don’t genetically match. The program will match your kidney with someone in need, and in return bump your friend up to the top of the waiting list…