NEW YORK --On July 2, 2025, New York Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Theodore “Teddy” Earley saved a life.
Earley, a personnel specialist in the New York Guard’s 56th Company, donated a kidney to New York City Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Lieutenant P.J. Acosta that day.
Acosta, a 43-year-old, 24-year veteran of the FDNY, was in end-stage renal disease. The only thing keeping him alive were regular lengthy dialysis sessions, which prevented him from working.
“Mr. Earley did indeed save my life, and I am here today because of him,” Acosta said.
“He gave me a second chance to live and see my daughter graduate college and get married one day and gave me a chance to be a grandfather in the future. He gave me a chance to go back to the job that I love and wear the uniform again and retire my way, not on a disability,” Acosta said.
Earley’s trip to the operating room at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx began in March when he saw a fire department social media post seeking a kidney donor for Costa.
Friends and family had been tested, but none of those kidneys were a match.
Earley said he decided he had to do something.
“I said to myself, ‘Teddy, this guy has dedicated 24 years of his life. If you don’t try to do anything for this guy, you are not going to be able to sleep.”
The day after he saw the post, Earley was in the hospital starting tests to see if he could spare one of his two kidneys for Acosta.
Before joining the New York Guard, the state's self-defense force-- Earley served in the Army National Guard from 2007 to 2017. He served in both the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery and the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry.
He deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and sustained back injuries which resulted in him leaving the Army Guard in 2017 as a sergeant.
He didn’t want to give up uniformed service, so he joined the New York Guard, which augments the New York National Guard on state missions.
He also got involved in the Fire Bell Club of New York, a group which supports the New York City fire department, where he serves on their board of directors.
It turned out that Earley, a Duchess County resident, was not just a match for Acosta’s kidney, he was a perfect match.
Acosta, meanwhile, was told that a total stranger was able and willing to donate a kidney to him.
So, on July 2, both men were in the hospital for Earley to donate and Acosta receive a kidney.
Earley was released after one day in the hospital, and when Costa was released two days later, Earley was there to say hello for the first time.
Earley said he’s proud of his work with the Firebell Club, supporting the fire department, and says donating his kidney was just an extension of that support.
Earley “has become family,” Acosta said.
“We speak every day and see each other often. My entire blood family and Fire Department family are very grateful,” Acosta said.
Acosta must take a regime of pills to prevent his body from rejecting the kidney, but he has had no side effects from the surgery, Earley said.
In fact, the back pain he had from Afghanistan now seems to have vanished, he added.
He is “a thousand percent grateful” he decided to donate the kidney, Earley said.
“Clearly P.J. is a solid guy, you know he dedicated nearly 25 years of his life in service of others,” Earley said.
“Just knowing that I can give back to somebody who has done that, it’s very humbling,” Earley said.