(Editor’s note: This article first appeared on The Times of Israel website, www.timesofisrael.com, on Oct. 21 and is reprinted with permission. It was written prior to the surgery that took place Tuesday, Oct. 29. At press time, The Chronicle learned that the surgery went well. Singer is the daughter of the late Chronicle publisher Milton Firestone and the late Bea Firestone Wasserstrom Flam and is an alumna of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.)
Next week, barring last-minute delays, I will be admitted to the vascular surgery ward at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The next morning a surgeon is scheduled to remove my right kidney and transfer it to the body of R, a woman from Haifa near my own age, who has suffered from a severe kidney disease for the past 10 years. If all goes well, my kidney will allow R to regain her health and return to a normal, productive life.
This surgery will be the culmination of quite a long journey which has come to be something of a vocation, a trek that has taken me far from my comfort zone. I have been permitted a small glimpse into the lives of people for whom taking care of their health is a full-time job, and who yearn for something that most of us feel entitled to automatically — the right to take good health for granted. (Read more at http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/youre-donating-what/)
