Police officer donates kidney to nephew

Police officers are sworn to serve and protect the lives of citizens of their surrounding communities.That is exactly what East Point Police Officer Eddie Christmas recently did for his nephew.Christmas, 37, was scheduled to under go surgery to donate a kidney to his 2-year-old nephew.
"He's been on dialysis since he was born because of kidney failure," Christmas said. "I'm doing this because I love him."Christmas had known since his nephew's birth that there might be a possibility he would need to apply to be a donor for the toddler.His nephew had recently become in dire need of the transplant and the family had been trying to get a match and any blood tests run for some time."My sister, my nephew's mom, went in June to get blood tested, but she couldn't do it, so they told me that I was possibly the next best match," Christmas said.Last week, Christmas found out he was a match and immediately scheduled to have the surgery done.Christmas said his recovery time as the donor would be about four to six weeks.In order to be considered as a donor, a person must not be diabetic or have high blood pressure problems or any other physical ailment.
"It was some pretty intense testing that I had to go through," Christmas said."They go through every test imaginable."He was scheduled for surgery at Emory University Hospital Friday with his nephew receiving the kidney a short time later at Eggleston Children's Hospital.Christmas said he is thankful to the East Point Police Department for their support of him and his family.