While this is a KU basketball blog, I would like to share arguably the most inspirational story I've ever written in my 24-year professional writing career. It is about a KU graduate and Kansas native who traveled to Israel to donate a kidney to a 10-year-old boy. It was published in 2005 in Kansas Alumni magazine. Eric Swim made this remarkable journey and sacrifice, someone I completely admire as a selfless person and a true hero. He was hailed as a hero in Israel and made front-page news.
I spent over two hours talking to Eric on the phone as he shared his remarkable experience with me. I'm so grateful to him for his candid thoughts, and hope this story inspired more people to become organ donors and help save lives.
I'm grateful to my wonderful editor Steve Hill at Kansas Alumni for letting me write this story.
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Eric Swim’s inspirational story is one of hope, unconditional love, and the priceless art of giving.
Swim, c’89, l’93, was conducting research on the Internet at his Marysville home in June when he read about 10-year-old Moshiko Sharon, an Israeli boy in dire need of a kidney transplant. Moshiko had waited over a year for a compatible donor.
“Knowing the pains and anxiety that are involved in raising children, let alone a child who happened to be sick and deathly ill, that just kind of brought me up short, knowing I had two kidneys,” says Swim, the father of Lucy, 10, and Josiah, 6. He decided to offer one of his own kidneys to Moshiko. “It just struck me as something I should do.
“In Judaism, there is an old adage: ‘If not now, when? If not me, who,’” adds Swim, who was raised a Lutheran but has observed Jewish customs with his wife, Lori, d’93, since 1997.
After passing exhaustive health tests, Swim and his family flew to Israel Sept. 6. He was immediately swarmed by TV cameras and made front-page headlines in all the newspapers. Swim used his celebrity platform to urge people to become organ donors.
Israeli President Moshe Katzav hailed him as a hero, but Swim was most deeply humbled by meeting a Holocaust survivor who embraced him and called him a “big hero.” “That generation gave me the inspiration to do this, to at least have the strength,” he says.
Swim’s favorite moment was meeting Moshiko and freeing him from his dialysis machine. Surgeons performed the transplant Sept. 21, and Swim left the hospital five days later. Moshiko, who called Swim an “angel” for saving his life, was released Oct. 6 — the beginning of the holiday Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah).
“Most satisfying to me was when we arrived at Moshiko’s home,” Swim says. “To see him walking around and out of the hospital in street clothes, trying to be a normal kid again, it was worth it just for that. That lifted me so much.”
As Swim and his family prepared to leave, Moshiko cried and didn’t want him to go. Swim told Moshiko he didn’t have to feel sad, “because you have a part of me with you all the time.”
Swim returned to Israel in December to receive the prestigious Menachem Begin Heritage award. Back home now in Marysville, where he works as a housekeeper and compliance officer at Community Memorial Hospital, he hopes Moshiko lives a long, happy life.
Though he lost a kidney, Swim knows he gained much more.
“He’s like another son to me, like a little brother,” he says. “I think about him every day. I love him.”
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