Teen Shared a Picture of This Man’s Shirt That Might Save His Life

If you could help someone get that much closer to getting a much needed kidney transplant simply by sharing a photo, would you do it?

Karen Aguayo, a freshman at Grand Canyon University, was shopping at a Costco in Arizona with some of her friends one day when she spotted a man wearing a pretty eye-catching T-shirt.

She had to do a double take, but sure enough, the T-shirt read: “Kidney donor needed, Type B+, Ask me how.”

The man wearing the T-shirt’s name was Robert Duran, and Karen couldn’t help but approach him, as his T-shirt had suggested, to ask him about it.

It turns out that Robert, 67, has stage five kidney disease. He does dialysis three days a week for four hours a day and has been on a wait list for a kidney transplant for four years.

Just over 95,000 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s the organ that’s most needed by far—the next highest is the liver, with nearly 14,000 waiting for a transplant. In Arizona alone, more than 2,100 people are waiting for an organ transplant, according to Donor Network of Arizona.

After talking with Robert at the store, while Karen couldn’t physically help out, she felt so awful that she decided to take matters into her hands and post a photo of Robert wearing his shirt on her Twitter account to hopefully get the word out even faster and find a match.

“I decided to post it on social media because I thought maybe someone out there that has a Twitter, can donate theirs or just help with a simple retweet to find him a donor,” Karen said. “I felt like it was the right thing to do. Once I read his shirt I felt something in my heart. It’s not everyday that you see shirts that say that and that was a first for my friends and I.”

Robert told Karen that every time he’s out in public, he wears that shirt. He’s even been known to take visits to airports; he pretends like he has a flight to catch just so he can get the word out to more people.

“We go all over the place wearing them,” Robert said. “We are just hoping someone sees them.”

Robert and his wife, who was with him in Costco when Karen and her friends approached them, are both very grateful to have found the girls.

“I think of them as a saint,” said Robert. “I think the Lord brought them down for me.”

The power of social media is incredible. The post Karen tweeted has been shared more than 260,000 times and many people have reached out to Robert in hopes of being his kidney donor. We’re crossing our fingers that someone is a match!

What do you think of this bittersweet story? Did you know there was such a high kidney transplant waitlist? Have you ever known someone who has needed a kidney transplant before?