70-yr-old Vietnam vet saves fellow soldier's life by donating his kidney as fate reunites them after 50 years
Jim McGee and Doug Kaufman served together in the Vietnam War about 50 years ago. The two soldiers were reunited when they were at a fellow serviceman’s funeral three months ago. At the funeral, Kaufman learned that McGee needed a kidney, reports People magazine.
Kaufman, 70, says he immediately reached the only logical conclusion and offered up one of his kidneys. “We have not seen each other face to face until we met in Monterey [California] about three months ago,” McGee, 69, told Fox5 in Washington, D.C. “Doug, at that point, volunteered a kidney, and to me, it’s the gift of life.”
“Our blood and tissue type match,” Kaufman added. “And, to me, it just is living proof that we’re all part of one human family. The chances of our match — I don’t know what the odds were but we beat them.”
