Daniel Hughes didn't know that Albert Sherman is a big deal in Massachusetts, a man about to have a new medical research complex named in his honor. In fact, the 47-year-old Pittsburgh resident didn't know "Albie" Sherman at all.
All Hughes knew from an organ donation website was that Sherman would die if he didn't get a new kidney soon. So Hughes decided to give the Massachusetts man one of his own after satisfying one concern: He wanted to be sure the recipient would take good care of the donated kidney and not abuse drugs or alcohol.
The first attempt at a transplant went horribly wrong and Hughes nearly died on the operating table, but he did not take back his offer. Instead, he reassured Sherman and his wife, Linda, that he would try again, finally giving his gift of life on Feb. 26.
"I wanted to donate to someone who would be a good candidate to live a full life," explained the soft-spoken Hughes, who works as a website designer so that he can be home with his two young sons while his wife pursues her career as a Pittsburgh police detective. "It wasn't based on religion. It was based on someone in need."
On Saturday, members of Sherman's synagogue, Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill, celebrated Hughes's stunning generosity, which saved the life of one of their most charismatic members. Sherman, vice chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, has been instrumental in building political support for Governor Deval Patrick's biomedical research initiatives, including the soon-to-be constructed Albert Sherman Advanced Therapeutic Center in Worcester.
Sherman has also been a booster of Jewish causes and is the longest-serving member of the Massachusetts Public Health Council.
"Whatever honor we bestow upon you pales into a ray of light compared to what you have done," Rabbi Alan Turetz said to Hughes, while synagogue members lined up to shake Hughes's hand and meet his wife, Charlotte, and their sons, Daniel, 5, and Christian, 3.
Hughes seemed uneasy in the spotlight, saying simply, "Donating a kidney is not as bad as it seems." The looks on the faces of Sherman's family after the transplant, he said, was reward enough.
"Daniel's tenacity to hang with us was incomprehensible," said a grateful Linda Sherman. "When the going got tough, he stuck on Albert like Krazy Glue. He had every reason to give up, but he didn't."
Though still rare, organ donations from strangers are becoming more common in an age when websites link potential donors and recipients. MatchingDonors.com, based in Canton, has registered 4,814 people who say they want to donate an organ (selling organs is illegal). The site features photos of donors and patients who have been brought together by the site, including a man who came from Australia to give his kidney to an American woman.
Hughes said he went to MatchingDonors.com in November after seeing a program on Discovery Channel about the minimally invasive surgery used to remove a kidney. Donors usually recovered quickly, the program said, and resume normal life with just one kidney. Remembering a neighbor who had died while awaiting a kidney, Hughes decided he wanted to spare someone else that tragedy and he began looking for someone in need with A-positive blood on the East Coast.
Linda Sherman said she was skeptical about looking for a kidney online and some potential donors seemed mentally unstable. But as her 69-year-old husband became weaker and more pained from policystic kidney disease, she was willing to try anything.
Daniel Hughes was no flake, she decided. Over the course of a long e-mail correspondence, Linda Sherman came to see Hughes as a practical man who understood exactly what he was doing and expected nothing in return except the satisfaction of doing a good deed.
"He's a mensch in the best sense of the word," she said.
Nonetheless, Hughes said it was an uphill battle to win the right to give his kidney to Sherman, as doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital repeatedly quizzed him about his motives and cautioned him that he could change his mind. The hospital would not allow him to meet the Shermans before the surgery so Hughes could more easily cancel the operation if he wanted.
Finally, on Jan. 15, Hughes and Sherman were wheeled into adjoining operating rooms for the transplant, but before the first incision, Hughes's blood pressure plummeted dangerously and the operation had to be scrubbed. The surgical team determined that Hughes had become dehydrated, perhaps from losing weight before the surgery as the kidney specialist had recommended. The Mass. General transplant surgeons decided that Hughes was not a good donor candidate after all.
"I was just stunned," said Charlotte Hughes, 45, when she learned that her husband had nearly died during what she believed was a low-risk operation. But after the shock wore off, she stood by her husband's desire to try it again. "It was something he wanted to do."
So the Shermans switched to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where, Hughes said, last week, Dr. Scott Johnson successfully removed one of Hughes's kidneys and a surgical team implanted it in Sherman.
On Saturday, Hughes said he was still sore and tired, but he expected to resume normal life soon - as long as he avoids contact sports and other activities that could damage his remaining kidney.
Hughes said Sherman's insurance covered his medical expenses and the Shermans paid for his travel to Boston, but he received nothing else for his sacrifice.
And that was fine with Daniel Hughes.
As Albie Sherman told him during their first conversation, "Thank you for giving me back my life."
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com.
