USA: In Iowa a chance encounter around a restored 1957 Chevy set the stage for an extraordinary kidney transplant story. Two men who bonded over classic cars became linked by far more than restoration work when one learned he faced kidney failure. The backdrop includes stark national figures: more than 100,000 Americans are waiting for a kidney transplant and roughly 12 people die every day awaiting an organ.
Terry Ratzinger landed on the transplant list after a diagnosis that his kidneys were failing and endured three years of waiting. A friend who had been restoring the Chevy died in 2021 and sold the project to Terry, which led him to meet mechanic Cory Tiefenthaler. Cory, a 45 year old with a wife and three young children, impulsively offered to donate a kidney.
Cory was not a direct match for Terry, so his generosity became part of a national kidney exchange chain that paired donors and recipients across multiple surgeries. Cory described a brief hospital stay for the donation with surgery on a Wednesday and discharge on Friday and feeling recovered enough within a week to be active. For Terry the transplant meant rapid, palpable recovery. Terry noted he felt noticeably better by the second day as anesthesia faded and within weeks he had driven 5,000 miles. He jokes that his wife of more than fifty years now has to schedule time with him because he is busier than ever and enjoying life.
From the second day after surgery Terry reported feeling better and has driven thousands of miles in weeks since, embracing freedoms he feared lost. The story highlights the crucial roles of living donors, transplant surgeons, coordinators and exchange programs in saving lives and underlines the desperate national need for kidneys while honoring the compassion that makes transplantation possible.
