Sally Satel and Virginia Postrel

Psychiatrist Sally Satel, author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine and other books, has had such severe kidney trouble that she needed a kidney transplant.

Virginia Postrel, author of The Future and its Enemies, wrote on her Dynamist blog:

Last fall, my friend Sally Satel wrote about the issue in general and her own search for a kidney donor. Between the time she wrote the article and the time it appeared in the NYT, I heard about her situation and volunteered as a donor. Our tissues turned out to be unusually compatible for nonrelatives and, when her Internet donor dropped out, I moved from backup to actual donor. We have our surgeries tomorrow morning.

Now, Virginia writes:

My operation went extremely smoothly. Hers took longer than expected, because a little bit of the kidney was spasming, making it hard for the surgeons to attach the blood vessels. Worse, a couple hours after surgery she started hemorrhaging and had to go back into surgery--an unusual and dangerous complication. Fortunately, she came through OK and is gradually recovering.

I am now out of the hospital and doing fine, recuperating at a friend's nice DC crash pad. I'm a bit weak and not as mobile as usual, but I'm off pain medication and more normal than not.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer