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After transplant fails, Utah native helps stranger look for new kidney donor

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A Salt Lake City native is working to finish the job she started: making sure a complete stranger she's never met gets a kidney.

Last month, Kim Constantinesco donated her kidney to a Broadway performer named Jamal Shuriah, who has been on dialysis since 2018.

But unfortunately, the donated kidney failed just days after the operation.

Doctors say the odds of that happening were between 0.5 to 1 percent.

"When I learned that the kidney did not take for Jamal, I knew I had to step up in a new kind of role — not only as a donor but also an advocate for living kidney donation," Constantinesco said.

"I haven't realized how many people want to donate," Shuriah said. "But I have maybe like 7 people that want to donate, and now I'm just waiting for a donor."

Anyone wanting to help Shuriah on his search for a new kidney or to read more about his journey can do so at findjamalakidney.com.