It is an uplifting story about selflessness: When a teacher in Queens came across a Facebook post about a colleague at her school needing a kidney, she decided to become a living donor, even though the two barely knew each other. NBC New York’s Pei-Sze Cheng reports.
Maggie Goodman only knew Thomas Coveney in passing.
They both teach at I.S. 73 in Queens but their paths never really crossed, until Goodman saw a post on Facebook that had been shared that had been shared many times and said that Coveney urgently needed a kidney donor for a second chance at life.
“I saw the post in late October and I was surprised it was someone I worked with. I didn’t know Thomas that well, but I wanted to help,” said Goodman. “I called Northwell Health and that was the first step.”
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WATCH HEREShe was a match and wanted to be a living donor. Humans have two kidneys and can survive with one, so she decided to donate hers to Coveney.
“I remember she came up to me about three weeks ago and holding a bag of kidney beans said, ‘Will you take my kidney?’ And I said ‘Are you nuts?’' said Coveney.
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SIGN UP He was shocked because he barely knew Goodman, and was overwhelmed by her selflessness. Doctors say it is a rare thing: Of the 25,000 transplants performed nationwide in 2024, only 6,000 were from living donors.
The procedure itself is done laparoscopically.
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“The whole operation is done through one little cut small less than an inch hole in the belly button,” explained transplant surgeon Dr. Ahmed Fahmy. “And the kidney is removed from the same incision.”
Fahmy said Goodman’s surgery took two and half hours and she recovered at the hospital for three days. He says her selflessness allowed Coveney to avoid dialysis and that recipients who receive living donor kidneys tend to fare much better than when the donor is deceased.
The surgery was Feb. 10, and days later Goodman was walking, she said. She has been walking every day since the surgery, and two weeks later, feels back to normal.
Coveney is improving, feeling better and stronger every day and thankful for Goodman.
“There are not a lot of people on this earth like Maggie,” said Coveney. “I just think that she is one of the kindest, most selfless people that probably ever existed. It was a real surprise and I just think that she’s like an angel she saved my life.”
And those at Northwell Health’s Living Donor Ambassador Program hopes others will see their story and be inspired to be living donors themselves. Goodman certainly knows what it means to give the gift of life.
“He deserves to be here and to have a life with a 7-year-old daughter and his wife and family," Goodman said.
