Believe it or not, it turns out that not all players in the NFL are garbage at being human beings!
Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Ma’ake Kemoeatu basically quit playing football because his little brother, Chris Kemoeatu, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, needed a kidney!
Their dad wanted to help out, but Ma’ake was the only suitable match.
The big brother explained his choice, saying:
“I’ve seen him struggle and the last three years of his career, fighting through a lot because of his kidney. When we found out he needed a transplant, we had to stop our careers because his health was most important to us. My dad wanted to do it [give his kidney to Chris] so bad. I had to stop him. But the credit goes to my brother because he had so many flare-ups. He had to go into training camp and had to fight through the pain and get ready for the season.”
Ma’ake is the oldest of seven kids and has seen Chris deal with the pain from his kidney since the younger brother was in eighth grade!
But in order to make the surgery happen, both men had to lose weight, and Chris had to lose it fast before he underwent heart surgery in July, and he had his kidney transplant on August 27th.
Chris got a pretty good deal, because according to the man who did the operation, Dr. Stephen Bartlett:
“[Ma’ake’s kidney] was one-and-a-half times bigger than any other kidney I had ever seen in my life.”
If family can’t help you at a time when you need it most, then what are they there for?! We’re glad to see it all worked out for the Kemoeatu brothers in the end, and we’re sure their bond is stronger now than ever before!
[Image via AP Images.]
