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Before he became a lawyer, Solomon Friedman was going to be a rabbi.
It wasn’t just a whim. In 2006, at age 21, he finished three years of studies in Israel and was ordained by the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. Then came a change of heart, when Solomon grew wise.
“The bare answer to that question,” he said one day this week, “is if you don’t buy what you’re selling, you can’t sell it to anybody.”
He’s something of a whiz-kid. A crack student at the University of Ottawa’s law school, he joined Edelson Clifford D’Angelo in 2010 — yes, that Edelson — and became a partner before age 30.
Young smarty-pants reference aside, Friedman did something fairly grown-up on Oct. 15: he donated his left kidney to his older brother Max, an anesthesiologist who lives in New York City.
It’s an old-fashioned bromance, the story of brothers who would do almost anything for each other. Nothing really special there, except when you hear this:
“I’ve been thinking about doing this since I was 10.”
Max, now 34, was born with a serious kidney disease. Solomon says his brother needed dialysis from ages 11 to 14 when he underwent his first transplant. The donor was their older brother, Elie, who was then 16, and the operation was done at Sick Kids in Toronto.
(A west-end Ottawa family, there are 10 Friedman children — not just a big brood but a ready “organ farm,” the lawyer kids.)
Donated kidneys, however, don’t last forever, with 15 to 20 years being the average lifespan. So Max always knew there would be another, and probably another after that.
Solomon and Max studied in Jerusalem together and have long been close. The younger Friedman always thought one of his kidneys might be required. On July 31, he says, a text arrived from Max in New York. “What’s your blood type?” it read.
He didn’t even know, nor did he know Max’s donated kidney was in serious trouble. He was on dialysis again in August and looking for another organ.
“It’s an odd way to think of it,” says Solomon. “When he told me he was in need of a transplant, I very much hoped I would be the donor.”
Lots of tests ensued and the surgery was set for mid-October at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. (The children, through father Barry, have dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship, Solomon explained, allowing Max to pursue his medical studies south of the border.)
How often in life, he asked, do we watch someone struggling with a terrible disease and feel helpless? “It’s an extraordinary opportunity to actually be able to be part of healing somebody.”
Much has changed since Elie donated the first kidney and a long side-incision was required. Solomon said the surgeon used a “single-port” laparoscopic technique in which his donor kidney was removed through his navel. Recovery is said to be much quicker: in his case, he was up for a short walk 12 hours later and is now back at work full-time.
“See, I get rabbinical occasionally,” he says, when asked about his motivation. The Hebrew word for love is “ahava”, he said, which has as a root meaning “to give”, not to take.
“You build love by giving. And I can tell you I never felt more love for my brother than after giving him a kidney.”
Friedman, father of three children, decided to speak about the donation to spread awareness about the need and to break down myths about the procedure.
“It’s not as scary as it sounds. The procedure, relatively speaking, is minor and easy to recover from.” In a month, he’s made pretty much a full recovery and can resume any physical activity, save things like martial arts, boxing or crazy contact sports.
Kidney transplants are quite common in Ontario. There were roughly 600 such transplants in 2014, 206 from live donors. But the waiting list for a kidney across the province stands at about 1,200.
And Ottawa could pull its sock up when it comes to volunteering organs. According to a list at the Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ottawa’s donor registration rate of 33 per cent puts us 128th among Ontario communities.
Max, meanwhile, is grateful. A husband and father, he has a whole career ahead of him.
“I hope that (Solomon’s) choice raises awareness for donors and those suffering from end-stage renal disease about the options available to them. Transplants have significantly improved my quality of life and it’s all the more special that I now have a piece of my best friend with me always.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com.
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
It wasn’t just a whim. In 2006, at age 21, he finished three years of studies in Israel and was ordained by the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. Then came a change of heart, when Solomon grew wise.
“The bare answer to that question,” he said one day this week, “is if you don’t buy what you’re selling, you can’t sell it to anybody.”
He’s something of a whiz-kid. A crack student at the University of Ottawa’s law school, he joined Edelson Clifford D’Angelo in 2010 — yes, that Edelson — and became a partner before age 30.
Young smarty-pants reference aside, Friedman did something fairly grown-up on Oct. 15: he donated his left kidney to his older brother Max, an anesthesiologist who lives in New York City.
It’s an old-fashioned bromance, the story of brothers who would do almost anything for each other. Nothing really special there, except when you hear this:
“I’ve been thinking about doing this since I was 10.”
Max, now 34, was born with a serious kidney disease. Solomon says his brother needed dialysis from ages 11 to 14 when he underwent his first transplant. The donor was their older brother, Elie, who was then 16, and the operation was done at Sick Kids in Toronto.
(A west-end Ottawa family, there are 10 Friedman children — not just a big brood but a ready “organ farm,” the lawyer kids.)
Donated kidneys, however, don’t last forever, with 15 to 20 years being the average lifespan. So Max always knew there would be another, and probably another after that.
Solomon and Max studied in Jerusalem together and have long been close. The younger Friedman always thought one of his kidneys might be required. On July 31, he says, a text arrived from Max in New York. “What’s your blood type?” it read.
He didn’t even know, nor did he know Max’s donated kidney was in serious trouble. He was on dialysis again in August and looking for another organ.
“It’s an odd way to think of it,” says Solomon. “When he told me he was in need of a transplant, I very much hoped I would be the donor.”
Lots of tests ensued and the surgery was set for mid-October at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. (The children, through father Barry, have dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship, Solomon explained, allowing Max to pursue his medical studies south of the border.)
How often in life, he asked, do we watch someone struggling with a terrible disease and feel helpless? “It’s an extraordinary opportunity to actually be able to be part of healing somebody.”
Much has changed since Elie donated the first kidney and a long side-incision was required. Solomon said the surgeon used a “single-port” laparoscopic technique in which his donor kidney was removed through his navel. Recovery is said to be much quicker: in his case, he was up for a short walk 12 hours later and is now back at work full-time.
“See, I get rabbinical occasionally,” he says, when asked about his motivation. The Hebrew word for love is “ahava”, he said, which has as a root meaning “to give”, not to take.
“You build love by giving. And I can tell you I never felt more love for my brother than after giving him a kidney.”
Friedman, father of three children, decided to speak about the donation to spread awareness about the need and to break down myths about the procedure.
“It’s not as scary as it sounds. The procedure, relatively speaking, is minor and easy to recover from.” In a month, he’s made pretty much a full recovery and can resume any physical activity, save things like martial arts, boxing or crazy contact sports.
Kidney transplants are quite common in Ontario. There were roughly 600 such transplants in 2014, 206 from live donors. But the waiting list for a kidney across the province stands at about 1,200.
And Ottawa could pull its sock up when it comes to volunteering organs. According to a list at the Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ottawa’s donor registration rate of 33 per cent puts us 128th among Ontario communities.
Max, meanwhile, is grateful. A husband and father, he has a whole career ahead of him.
“I hope that (Solomon’s) choice raises awareness for donors and those suffering from end-stage renal disease about the options available to them. Transplants have significantly improved my quality of life and it’s all the more special that I now have a piece of my best friend with me always.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com.
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
