Full episode
347: Matchmakers
Act Two

Part Of Me, Why Not Take Part Of Me?

Chaya Lipschutz, an Orthodox Jewish woman from Brooklyn, donated her kidney to a stranger. After that, she decided to spend all her time trying to match up potential donors with kidney patients. It's incredibly hard to make a match, and for a year, she had no success. Then, she gets her first break: Her brother's going to donate. For Chaya, a single, middle-aged woman who was supposed to get married decades ago like everyone else in her community, being a kidney matchmaker has become an obsession. She needs this surgery to succeed. Reporter Mary Robertson and This American Life Producer Sarah Koenig recorded Chaya and her brother as the transplant date approached. (19 minutes)