Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | Sgt. Marcus Brito, now a data network specialist with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group...... read more read more
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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some are better than others. Some are expensive and some are not. However, there’s one gift no amount of money can buy.
Sgt. Marcus Brito, a data network specialist with 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), says he never had second thoughts about his gift.
“If you have the chance to save someone’s life, wouldn’t you?” Brito asked.
When Brito was in high school in Queens, N.Y., one teacher, Jennifer Palazzo, stood out among the rest. She was his physiology teacher during his junior year and his Advanced Placement biology teacher the following year.
“Senioritis really set in during my senior year,” Brito explained. “And to top it off, I was having problems at home.
[Jennifer] talked to my other teachers and explained what was going on. I probably wouldn’t have graduated without her.”
Throughout the years, Brito and Jennifer stayed in touch and a year ago he had a chance to help her just like she helped him.
In November 2009, Brito sent Jennifer a text message to say hello and to see how things were going. She replied her husband was in the hospital.
“I couldn’t make it down there that day, but as soon as I could take a day off work I went to the hospital,” Brito explains. “This is the first time I’d met her husband. I knew a lot about him, and when I saw him, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
The man he was looking at was nothing he envisioned. The 280-pound body builder laid in the hospital bed hooked up to more wires than one could count. His blood pressure was sky-high. His kidneys were failing.
“During my visit, the doctor came in,” Brito said. “I was about to leave, but Michael told me to stay.”
The doctor informed them Michael needed a kidney transplant as soon as possible.
“The news was grim,” Michael Palazzo, Jennifer’s husband, later wrote in a letter to the 2nd MLG (Fwd.) command. “The nightmare of finding a kidney donor had begun.”
Without hesitation, Brito told Jennifer, “He can have one of mine.”
Jennifer was in shock and questioned Brito’s offer. He esponded, “You saved my life, and now I’m going to save Michael’s.”
“When Jennifer told me that, my initial response was he would never do that,” said Michael. “But then he walked up to me and said ‘What’s up, I’m Marcus. You don’t know me, but I have a kidney for you.’”
For the next few days, Brito continued to visit Michael in the hospital when Michael had to have a dialysis catheter put into his chest.
“The dialysis really took a toll on me,” explained Michael. “The day I entered the hospital, Nov. 12, 2009, I weighed 278 pounds, but by the time of my surgery, I only weighed 219 pounds.”
“It’s so painful to watch, I can’t imagine having one,” Brito said. “After watching Michael those couple of days, I knew the decision I made was right.”
Doctors began the transplant process Dec. 14. Brito filled out the donor questionnaire and underwent testing to see if he was able to give Michael his kidney.
“The doctors ran every kind of blood test you can think of,” explained Brito. “I even had to talk to a psychologist, but all of it was worth it.”
A week later, Dec. 22, the doctors called. Brito was a match.
“Once again, I was in amazement,” said Michael. “As soon as I hung up the phone, I couldn’t wait to tell [Brito]. I must have called his phone a dozen times.”
“For some reason I never doubted I would be a match, as crazy as it might sound,” explained Brito. “The doctor said we were so closely matched the odds were one in 30, 000. That’s when it really hit me this wasn’t a coincidence.”
Two months went by, and the tests were complete. “It was game time,” Brito said.
After a six-hour surgery, the two emerged from the operating room. The living kidney-donor transplant was a success.
“I honestly can say that day, [Brito] and I became brothers,” Michael wrote in the letter.
Jennifer helped Brito graduate high school so he could continue his life by serving in the Marine Corps reserve and going to college.
Brito returned the favor by giving her husband a kidney so they could continue their life together.
The gift of life is priceless.
“I don’t know what I would do without [Brito] and will be eternally grateful,” Michael concluded.
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.26.2011 01:56 |
| Story ID: | 67754 |
| Location: | HELMAND PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 2,408 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Against the odds: Queens native donates kidney to save a life, by Sgt Rachael Moore, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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