Twist Helps Kidney Donor Save Dad, Husband

BALTIMORE (AP) -- When her father's kidneys failed, a Jessup woman who had already signed up to donate to a stranger through a paired exchange was told she would have to honor her previous commitment.

University of Maryland Medical Center officials say Julie Stitt originally signed up for the exchange knowing it would help her husband, Chuck, move up the transplant list. He got a new kidney in December.

But the same day Stitt donated last month, her father, Richard Kern, got the call to go to the hospital for his transplant.

Protocol didn't allow nurses and doctors to say so, but they all knew Kern was the next patient with her rare blood type.

Officials say the twist of fate helped Stitt save the lives of her father and her husband.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)