Vacuum cleaner pitch leads to organ donation

BigM · Oct 12, 2007

Friday Oct 12 11:00 AEST
A chance meeting between a vacuum cleaner salesman and a would-be customer in the US has led to an altogether different transaction — the donation of a kidney.

Three years ago, 35-year-old Paul Sucher's kidneys failed, leading to costly dialysis and a wait on the local university's 500-person-long transplant list.

Then, six months ago Jamie Howard came to Sucher's door in his capacity as a salesman for Kirby vacuum cleaners.

advertisement
"We were out knocking doors, doing what we do — trying to set appointments to demonstrate the Kirby vacuum for people," he said.

Sucher's girlfriend Andi Wofford told him they couldn't afford one because of the medical problems.

"I jokingly said to him 'you donate a kidney and we'll buy a vacuum'," Wofford said.

But Howard was compelled by the couple's plight.

"I just felt moved to help if I could," he said.

Research revealed Howard and Sucher shared blood types, and Howard decided he would go through with the plan.

Howard's wife Marcy admits she was shocked, "but I knew he said yes and he would go on with it".

"I told him at the very beginning, 'I will support you if that's what you want to do'," she said.

The operation took place in August, and Sucher says he feels great — almost as if he'd never lost his kidneys in the first place.

He sees it as ''truly a miracle", and his girlfriend agrees.

"It's hard to believe that someone that you don't know, who has no connection to you previously, would be willing to give that much," she said.

And Howard hopes the story will help the slightly shabby image door-to-door salesmen have.

"The next time somebody knocks on the door and they're offering to clean your carpet for free, you might want to think about it because you never know what they're gonna do when they get in the house," he said.
Click to expand...

Maybe next time we should see what the door salesman has to offer??

wind2000 · Oct 12, 2007

Its amazing how ppl are willing to share. Kudos to the salesman's generosity.

xiaojia · Oct 12, 2007

nice.. good karma

tonkachi · Oct 12, 2007

definitely kudos to the salesman who was willing to give up a kidney to help them out

shw · Oct 12, 2007

but did they get the kirby vacuum cleaner?

ProjectD · Oct 12, 2007

^ does it matter? this story was posted to show how generous some people actually are

Taxloss · Oct 12, 2007

LOL, if a salesman ever comes to my house I'll ask whether he could miss some organs (just in case I needed one hehe) -lol

Vacuum cleaner pitch leads to organ donation

BigM Well-Known Member

wind2000 Self Schemata

xiaojia Well-Known Member

tonkachi Well-Known Member

shw Well-Known Member

ProjectD VIP yay :]

Taxloss Stripper Vicar