When a friend needs your help, you don’t turn them away. We treat friends like family, caring for them in any capacity they might need.

So for one man, when his best friend reached out on Facebook because she was in need of a kidney transplant, he didn’t hesitate to help her. As a veteran of the U.S military, his had spent his entire adult life being in service for others. 

However, it was his wife’s brush with death that inspired him to help his best friend out. He had learned to see that there could be good found in moments that are scary. Now Josh Harrold was determined to play a part in helping others find that happiness.

When Harrold learned that his wife, Erica, had a brain tumor, the couple’s search for answers and a cure started immediately. Doctors had told the couple there wouldn’t be a positive outcome, but the Harrolds refused to stop trying to find one regardless.

He told ABC7 News, “Everywhere we went, every neurosurgeon was telling us, ‘I’m sorry. Your tumor is inoperable. You have maybe two to four years to live. We can do chemo, but that’s all we can do.’ But we came to USC and the neurosurgeon was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Kelly Van Den Berghe

After surgery, his wife Erica made a full recovery. Harrold realized that patients need more good news from these often terrifying medical situations. He wanted to be a part of that.

So when his best friend, Kelly Van Den Berghe said she needed a kidney transplant, Harrold knew immediately he would help. With the blessing of Erica, he reached out to Van Den Berghe, who suffered from kidney disease. Without the transplant she would need dialysis for her entire life. 

When doctors confirmed Harrold was a good match, the donation took place.

Van Den Berghe said:

He’s part of me. And my kidneys are perfect. So he saved my life.”

Josh Harrold during his recovery. ABC7

Harrold’s need to help didn’t stop there. When his premature daughter was born at 2 pounds 14 ounces, the family had an 8-week-stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). As Harrold watched his daughter’s fight, as well as the fight of other babies he saw there, it inspired him to put his name on the hospital’s donor list program.

Now Harrold is donating 25 percent of his liver to a baby girl who isn’t quite 1 year old. This he says, will let him continue to help people find happiness in the darkest of times.

“I went in for a battery of tests and luckily everything matched out. It seems like I’m this baby’s perfect match,” he said. His liver, he said, should regenerate the missing part in about 6 weeks.

According to the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, there were 144,302 transplants in 2021, with an increase of 11.3 percent over 2020. 

There are 105,800 people on the national transplant list, said the Health Resources and Services Administration. 

A new person is added to the transplant list every 10 minutes.

Harrold said, “Whether it’s just checking that donor box on your driver’s license, or giving blood … You don’t have to go to the extremes that I’m going to, but anybody can be a hero.”

Sources: ABC7 | MyPositiveOutlooks