A man once in need of a kidney transplant has now successfully undergone surgery thanks to a chance ride with an Uber driver. Bill Sumiel, 71, got into Tim Letts’, 33, car after a dialysis appointment on Oct. 30, 2021. What followed was life-changing.
After leaving the Newark, Delaware dialysis center, it was a 30-minute trip to Sumiel’s residence in Salem, New Jersey, The New York Post wrote today (March 31). As they traveled to the destination, Letts struck up a conversation with his passenger. He learned that the 71-year-old had been waiting for a kidney transplant for over three years. “On the car ride, I told him of my dilemma. About halfway home after talking the whole way and slowly becoming friends, Tim tells me that ‘I think God must have put you in my car,’” Sumiel recalled in an interview earlier this year.
The New Jersey resident couldn’t believe what happened next. His Uber driver said, “If you’ll take my name and number, I’ll give a kidney to you.” Sumiel continued, “I was shaking so hard I couldn’t even write down his name and number.” But offering to undergo the life-saving procedure wasn’t enough to make it happen. First, doctors needed to see if Letts’ blood type was even a match for the transplant hopeful. To their delight, the 33-year-old, who is also an Army veteran, was the perfect match. Sumiel noted that the donation reaffirmed his faith in miracles.
Letts reflected on how he was able to give a vital organ to someone he’d only just met. “I was inspired by how genuine this man was. He was happy. He was kind and you could tell he was suffering, but he didn’t let that fact protrude. I didn’t want to look in the mirror later down the road and think, ‘Wow, man, you suck. You could have done something and you didn’t, because you talked yourself out of it or because you let other people talk you out of it.”
He continued, “Good people need good people to stand by them, and don’t call yourself a good person if you’re not willing to stand by another good person.” It’s been two years since the kidney surgery and although Letts now lives in Stuttgart, Germany, the pair have vowed to remain close. “I don’t think that politics or background really define whether two souls can be friends or not. I saw somebody that I felt a connection to, somebody that I felt I could make a difference for,” Letts added.