Utah father donates kidney to Denver dad he knew in high school

Utah father donates kidney to Denver dad he knew in high school

(Courtesy of Steve Kostiuk)


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SARATOGA SPRINGS — After seeing a call for a kidney on Facebook, a Utah man donated his to a friend from high school he hadn’t seen in 20 years.

Steve Kostiuk, a husband and father living in Denver, has lupus, which made his kidneys fail. He started the transplant process in August of 2015 and later created a Facebook page called “Don’t need pity, just need a kidney.”

Chad Logan, who has four kids and lives in Saratoga Springs, saw that Kostiuk was in need of a kidney on Facebook, and he said to himself, “I can fix that.” He said he didn’t know what a kidney transplant entailed and had never really considered being a living donor before that.

“There was just something about reading that that I just intuitively knew,” he said. “And it’s weird to say, but that’s kind of what prompted me to kind of move forward and see if I was going to be an option for him,” he said.

Logan asked Kostiuk who he could contact, and Kostiuk sent him the contact information for Presbyterian St. Luke’s Transplant Center, Logan said.

He filled out some paperwork and went through an over-the-phone mental health screening, and once the screening was completed, Logan said he figured he would hear from them.

At the beginning of this year, Kostiuk posted something on Facebook about there being a donor in process, Logan said.

“I hadn’t told Steve that I was moving forward with it just because I didn’t want to create any weird expectations or get his hopes up or lots of different reasons,” Logan said. “ … And I thought to myself when he posted that, I was like, ‘Awesome’ and I kind of thought, ‘I’m off the hook, someone else has come forward and I’m not that guy.’

Steve Kostiuk and Chad Logan used to play football together. (Photo: Courtesy of Steve Kostiuk)
Steve Kostiuk and Chad Logan used to play football together. (Photo: Courtesy of Steve Kostiuk)

“And about a week later my phone rang, and it was the hospital, and they just said, ‘Hey we wanted to touch base and see if you were going to come in for testing ...’ and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh I’ve been dragging my feet this whole time and I’m the guy that’s in testing that they’re talking about.’” Needless to say, Logan was a match. Kostiuk said on April 5, he got a call saying he had a match and that it was Logan.

“When the lady called me and told me that I had a donor, I mean that was pretty emotional for me,” Kostiuk said. “I mean, I was pretty excited; looking forward to kind of getting this past me and moving on. And then she said, ‘Do you know who the donor is?’ and I said, 'No, I don’t,' and ... then she told me who it was and then I just broke down in tears.”

On May 16, Kostiuk got a new kidney. They are both doing really well. Kostiuk said Logan saved his life.

“Yes, he saved my life, but he also changed the lives of so many people around me,” Logan said. “My wife, my kids, my parents and my in laws, my colleagues. I mean, there are so many people from my family and friends and stuff that are just so grateful to Chad, and they’ve reached out to him, and I mean they’re just so pleased that I have ... another opportunity to try to get healthy and live a normal life for my kids and just for myself.”

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Megan Marsden Christensen

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