‘Miracle’ as Uber driver donates kidney to stranger after being called to pick him up from hospital

A kind-hearted Uber driver donated his kidney to a complete stranger he was driving home from the hospital – giving him the “gift of life”.

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.

Mr Sumiel, 73, has been in need of an urgent kidney transplant for three years, having suffered from kidney failure after being diagnosed with diabetes a decade earlier.

On the way home to Salem, he told Army veteran Mr. Letts about his plight – but didn’t expect the Uber driver to offer him a kidney if the pair were matched.

“About halfway home, after talking all the way and slowly becoming friends, Tim tells me that ‘I think God must have put you in my car,'” Mr Sumiel told ABC6 News.

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

“He says, ‘If you take my name and number, I’ll give you a kidney.’ I was shaking so bad I couldn’t even write his name and number.”

For a transplant to be successful, the two parties must have compatible blood typing, tissue typing, and cross-matching. Blood tests can usually determine this.

Luckily this was the case and the operation at Christiana Hospital was successful.

The two have now become lifelong friends, with Mr Sumiel calling his Uber ride two years ago a “miracle”.

Mr Sumiel, 73, has been in need of an urgent kidney transplant for three years, having suffered from kidney failure after being diagnosed with diabetes a decade earlier

Mr. Letts has since moved to Germany but plans to stay in touch with Mr. Sumiel

He said: “Giving a kidney is the gift of life and I feel so fortunate to have that gift. I can almost live my life back to normal, and this work (at the University of Delaware Kidney Rehabilitation Training Clinic) brings me closer to that every day.

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

Mr. Letts has since moved to Germany but plans to stay in touch with Mr. Sumiel.

He told Town Square Delaware he had planned to go to friends’ house after dropping the then 71-year-old back home in October 2021.

The former Uber driver said: “I didn’t want to look in the mirror later and be like, ‘Wow man, you shit. You could have done something, but you didn’t do it because you talked yourself out of it or because you let others talk you out of it.”

“Good people need good people to help them, and don’t call yourself a good person unless you’re willing to help another good person.”