I am never sure what to tip the Uber driver.

The struggle is that I don’t want to not tip enough, especially when the service is excellent.

But, what exactly do you tip the Uber driver who gives you a kidney?

When Bill Sumiel, 73, got into an Uber for a ride home from the dialysis center, he didn’t expect more than a ride home.

But Army Veteran Tim Letts, 33, changed everything for Sumiel. After picking up the man at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, DE., the pair began talking. Sumiel explained why he was getting dialysis – his kidneys had failed after he had developed diabetes more than a decade ago.

Sumiel had been needing a kidney transplant for more than three years.

“On the car ride I tell him of my dilemma,” he said.

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.'”

Then, completely unexpected, “‘(Letts) says, “If you’ll take my name and number, I’ll give a kidney to you.’ I was shaking so hard I couldn’t even write down his name and number,” Sumiel said.

Tim Letts, 33, was working for the app in Cape May County, New Jersey, in 2021 when he was asked to pick up Bill Sumiel from a dialysis center at Christiana Hospital. Photo from Facebook

Letts said he had planned to see friends after dropping his last passenger, Sumiel, off at his home. But after hearing his story, he knew that his plans were changing.

“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.'”

Letts, who has since moved to Germany, said that his reasoning was simple. “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.”

To match, the hospital will do blood work, checking to see if blood and tissue type are compatible and then do a cross match. These two strangers were a perfect match.

After a successful surgery, Sumiel now says the two are lifelong friends.

“(Letts) giving a kidney is the gift of life and I feel so fortunate to have that gift,” he said.

I can almost live my life back to normal, and this (rehab) is getting me closer to that every day.

“I know miracles have happened in the past. Maybe they never happened to me, maybe they have. But now I really have those beliefs reinforced,” Sumiel said.

Bill Sumiel talks about the life-saving Uber ride he took. Photo from ABC 6 video

Despite Letts’ move to Germany, they stay in touch through Facebook. Letts said he has zero regrets about what he did.

And for Sumiel, he got a lesson that good things can happen.

“I know miracles have happened in the past. Maybe they never happened to me, maybe they have. But now I really have those beliefs reinforced.”

For two strangers to meet, and then be compatible for a life-changing transplant, is beyond amazing. Watch below for a look at this pair of friends forever tied by a single car ride.

Sources: Daily Mail | 6ABC