Here’s a heartwarming story featuring two CNN staffers.
In urgent need of help, CNN’s last remaining original employee, senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth sent a letter to his coworkers last September in need of a new kidney.
Roth first received a kidney from a deceased donor nearly 25 years ago. Unfortunately, he wrote in the aforementioned letter, that “valiant kidney is now rapidly dying inside me.” He explained that he needed an organ donation and he needed it “soon.”
CNN deputy managing editor of investigations Samira Jafari answered the call.
After it was concluded that the two were indeed a match, Jafari donated one of her kidneys to Roth over the weekend. Roth, who calls Jafari “his heroine,” was released from the hospital and is now resting at home in Connecticut.
Jafari posted on Instagram thanking everyone for the well-wishes and insisting that the real heroes are the members of the Yale-New Haven transplant team. Why exactly did she donate? Jafari wrote: “The last few years have often left some of us feeling a little helpless. It was nice to just get to fix one thing in the world. I’m grateful for that opportunity, now and always. Let’s try to fix one thing at a time.”
The New York-based Roth and Atlanta-based Jafari appeared on CNN New Day earlier today to share their story and update viewers and colleagues on their respective conditions. Roth admitted that he still feels sore from the incision, but says he “feels very blessed,” adding, “I’m not very lucky at the racetrack, one of my first loves, but so far with this medical lifeline that Samira has given me, it’s onward and upward.”
CNN’s last remaining original employee @RichardRothCNN sent a letter to his coworkers last September in Desperate need of a new kidney.
CNN’s Samira Jafari answered the call and on Tuesday Richard successfully received a new kidney from @SamiraCNN. pic.twitter.com/V0mebAOR4q
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) April 18, 2022