'How do I get on the list?'

From The Tennessean, Good News with Brad Schmitt, INSPIRATION

What would you do if one of your best buddies called and said he kidneys were failing and he needed a new one to survive?

It’s something that Gregg Marsh, TriStar Summit Medical Center’s IT director, faced last year. The call came from the best man at his wedding, Andy Wilson, a sheriff’s deputy in Colorado and one of Gregg’s closet friends for 38 years.

 “I remember he called me and said, ‘I need a new kidney,’” Gregg said.

“There was a long, silent pause. I then said, ‘How do I get on the list?’ Andy said, “I’m not asking for that,’ and I replied, ‘I would be an idiot if I at least didn’t find out.”

The two, both 54, went to the same high school in Racine, Wisconsin, but really didn’t get close until they started working for the same company. They’ve been on hunting trips together for 25 years, and they’ve shared their Christian faith together.

So this was a non-brainer for Gregg.

“I had to do something,” Gregg said. “Andy is one of my prayer brothers.”

It wasn’t quite as much a non-brainer for Gregg’s wife and their two adult children, he said.

“She knew I had made up my mind. She asked questions through the entire process, [and] I knew she wasn’t as committed,” Gregg said. “The moment changed for he when she was able to witness how weak Andy was for the first time. I don’t think she fully understood it until then.

“My daughter Peyton just kept asking, ‘You’re going to be OK after, right?” and my son, Gavin, said, “I hope it goes well.”

None other of Andy’s friends and relatives got tested, but Gregg was a medical match and their transplant surgeries happened Feb. 13 in Denver.

“I remember seeing Andy the day after our surgery,” Gregg said. “He was a different man.”

Gregg went back to work a month after surgery, and he and Andy are now planning their annual October hunting trip in Colorado.