One in every of Brooklyn’s most well-known pizza males cooked up a miracle for a buyer in want.
When Mark Iacono, proprietor of wood-fired-pizza establishment Lucali in Carroll Gardens, realized his patron and good friend Theo Alano, 54, was affected by end-stage kidney illness, he was devastated.
Determined to assist not directly, Iacono shared a submit along with his 245,000 Instagram followers in December of 2023, writing that Alano, a inventive director, was in search of a kidney donor.
In Could 2022, Alano contracted a extreme case of COVID-19 on a flight residence from Eire to New York Metropolis.
Then 52-years-old, he had beforehand been wholesome, however he went downhill rapidly, nearing dying.
Docs found he had end-stage kidney illness and must begin dialysis.
However, earlier than he may do this, his well being worsened rapidly. In early 2023, two buddies rushed him to the emergency room after he grew bed-ridden and frail and his pores and skin turned yellow.
Docs at Lenox Hill Hospital stated he was in kidney failure.
“It was Ash Wednesday, and the nurse pulled my buddies apart and stated, ‘your good friend most likely has an hour to stay,’” Alano recalled.
He survived, because of dialysis — a therapy that removes fluid and waste from the blood — and commenced common periods on the Southern Manhattan Dialysis Heart in Greenwich Village.
The therapy was exhausting.
Three mornings per week, he’d get up at 3:30 a.m. for four-hour periods.
A kidney donation was his greatest hope for the long run, however there was a 10-year waitlist for a donor by the New York State Donate Life Registry.
He started praying for a miracle — and shared a plea for a possible dwelling donor along with his 1,659 followers on Instagram.
“If I’ve ever impacted your life or if anybody has modified your life in some kind – I problem you to pay it ahead and think about donating a kidney to me,” Alano wrote within the submit.
He even acquired stars like Jessica Alba, whom he had met by a mutual good friend, to repost his plea.
However it was beloved pizzaiolo Iacono whose name to motion helped save his life.
Higher West Sider Rusty Rastello, 42, a longtime Lucali fan, occurred to see Iacono’s submit.
It deeply resonated with Rastello, a professor on the Culinary Institute of America and a sommelier who previously labored at Eleven Madison Park and Gramercy Tavern.
His uncle, a father determine to him, had donated a kidney to his brother 32 years earlier. He started researching kidney transplants procedures and reached out to Alano.
“I noticed the submit and it triggered a reminiscence,” Rastello stated.
In December 2023, the duo met over espresso in Hell’s Kitchen and immediately linked.
“It was as if I had recognized him for years,” recalled Alano.
Rastello underwent a sequence of blood and urine checks, and, in Could 2024, he was discovered to be an ideal match for Alano.
He additionally needed to bear a normal bodily and chest X-ray to make sure he was wholesome sufficient to be a dwelling donor.
On August 7, 2024, each males checked into the Columbia Presbyterian’s Milstein Hospital in Washington Heights.
Rastello’s surgical procedure — a minimally invasive process that required only a few small incisions within the stomach — took simply three hours. Alano’s extra difficult operation took six.
Rastello recalled getting emotional when his fiance instructed him his kidney had been efficiently transplanted to Iacono.
“I simply began crying. I nonetheless don’t even know what that emotion was – it was someplace between aid and pleasure,” he stated, holding again tears. “We had develop into buddies at this level and it was an immense quantity of gratitude that we each got here by it. After I noticed him — gentle had come to his eyes, colour to his face. It was exceptional how rapidly he recovered.”
Rastello went residence after two nights within the hospital, Iacono stayed for 4 nights.
Two months after the life-saving transplant surgical procedure, each Rastello and Alano say they really feel nice.
Final month, the duo celebrated their exceptional journey and new-found friendship over a wood-fired pie at Lucali.
“He did one thing so selfless,” Alano stated. “I don’t understand how I acquired to be so fortunate.”
For extra details about dwelling kidney donation, go to the Nationwide Kidney Basis’s web site at Kidney.org.
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