Health

Dad gets kidney transplant after asking at Disney World

The single father of five who wore an “In Need of Kidney” T-shirt to Disney World over the summer underwent a kidney transplant last week in New York.

Robert Leibowitz, 60, of New Jersey, never imagined how magical his family’s vacation trip to the Magic Kingdom would be after securing a kidney from a stranger — thanks to another stranger’s viral Facebook post about his special handmade T-shirt.

Leibowitz suffered from chronic kidney disease and was going to dialysis three days a week. He had been in need of a kidney for three years, Inside Edition reported.

“I thought, ‘You know, if I can get one person who’s my blood type to just respond and maybe that’s my match…You know it’s worth the $35 investment for the shirt,’” Leibowitz told CBS News. “This amazing couple, Rocio and Juan Sandoval, took a picture of it and said do you mind if I post it? Within the first week 90,000 Facebook shares. Three days walking around the park… my phone wouldn’t stop ringing.”

Rocio Yanira Sandoval posted the photo of Leibowitz’s T-shirt on her Facebook page.

Richie Sully, 39, a father of two from Fort Wayne, Ind., was one of those who saw the post.

“I have an extra kidney, it’s not like I need them both,” he told CBS.

He and Leibowitz were reported doing well after the surgery Thursday at New York-Presbyterian Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.

“There are no words, no matter how much I say how much I appreciate,” Leibowitz told NBC4 New York days before the surgery.

The station reported that Leibowitz plans to take his donor and Sandoval to Disney World to celebrate his fairy-tale ending.