Feb 3: Social media has been thought to be both a boon and a curse in recent times. But for Chris Strouth from the US state of Minnesota, social media will forever be a boon till the last day of his life.
Although social media has made clear a way for us to interact with the world and does give us our dose of distraction and entertainment, its addictive nature can eat into our productive time.
Chris Strouth from the US state of Minnesota, social media will forever be a boon till the last day of his life. The simple reason is that it saved his life 13 years ago. Chris had been suffering from kidney failure but was saved when one of his Twitter followers donated one of his organs.
53-year old Chris had first started suffering from the ailment in 2009 and started his dialysis. However, when things did not seem to get any better, in a desperate attempt, he took to social media with a tweet that simply said he needed a kidney.
Chris did not really have much hope for any response from his tweet but while he was in the movies, nineteen of his followers responded, offering to be tested to see if they were a match.
Talking to LadBible, Chris said that he was left surprised when he returned from the film two and a half hours later to see the overwhelming support. “Before I even knew my blood type, people were volunteering theirs and doing all this research,” he said.
The match was ultimately found in 56-year-old Scott Pakudaitis, a casual acquaintance whom he knew from the Minnesota music scene. Chris said that they had not interacted much at all before Scott offered his kidney. After the donation, they did spend major holidays together and Chris said he adored Scott.
Scott told LadBible that they did not know each other enough to say hi and that he always admired Chris as a talented artist.
“If I can do something that will cause me discomfort for a couple of weeks in exchange for helping someone for many years, I’m going to do it,” Scott said about helping Chris with his kidney.
Chris even shared a tweet on his 14th Twitter anniversary and reminisced about the help he had received from social media years back.
14 years on @Twitter it got me a kidney, the very first social media transplant. Made friends made enemies. Did a crap ton of media wonder that the next 14 bring. Do you remember when you joined Twitter? I do! #MyTwitterAnniversary pic.twitter.com/93Lf7miOS1
— chris strouth (@chrisstrouth) October 12, 2021
Unfortunately, in spite of the successful transplant years back, Chris is on dialysis once again. He may however, have a potential donor, thanks to a distant extended family member who has contacted him via social media. We hope that Chris recovers this time as well like he did back in 2009.
