Park City Fire District Engineer Henry Evans has run into many burning buildings to save strangers. So when his cousin went into renal failure and needed a kidney, Henry responded without hesitation. And Henry volunteered to give his cousin one of his kidneys. The problem was that Henry and his cousin were not a match.
Henry’s true inspiration came from his wife, Lisa. Nine years ago, at Intermountain Medical Center, Lisa donated one of her kidneys to her aunt who needed a kidney to stay alive. Henry watched the process play out and saw the impact it had on both Lisa and her aunt. He decided to look at donating his own kidney. “One of the things that I’ve always loved about her is that she’s the most thoughtful, selfless person I’ve ever met. She’ll always go out of her way for somebody. She’s always thinking of other people, so to go from just being nice to people and being thoughtful to doing something like this, I was like, Whoa, that’s unreal,” said Henry. Henry and Lisa are telling their story because they know that many selfless individuals would also be willing to donate an organ to save a life if they knew how safe and easy it was for them. They want everyone to know that it is low risk and yields marvelous and life-changing rewards. “You literally save someone’s life. If my kidney came back every year, I would just keep donating it. It’s so fulfilling. I don’t know of anyone who would regret doing it. There was never a time through the whole process where I had second thoughts,” said Henry.
