A Timely Example of Selflessness

Saba Torabi gave her mother a kidney for Christmas--and gave someone she has never met a chance at a normal life. The 18-year-old freshman at Cal State Northridge donated one of her kidneys to her mother, Karen, whose own kidneys failed two years ago. Less than three months after turning 18--the legal age to donate organs--Saba Torabi was wheeled into an operating room at USC-University Hospital, where the kidney was removed, carried down a short hall and transplanted into her mother.

“There is a 95% chance it will take,” said one of the doctors overseeing the procedure earlier this month.

Torabi’s gift to her mother reminds us that the season’s sentiments of peace and love and charity come not from a store. Some would say they come from the heart. In Torabi’s case, though, it would be the kidneys.

And her gift was not to her mother alone. Although many of the 12,000 people who receive kidney transplants each year get the organ from a relative, many thousands remain on a national waiting list. Torabi’s donation to her mother means there will be at least one more kidney available to someone who needs it.

In a season when department store sales and queues for hot toys threaten to drown out all else, Torabi’s selflessness shines as an example of what really matters.