Colorado man gets kidney from coworker: "It's a complete transformation"

Commercial property management company Cushman & Wakefield has a global presence with 62,000 employees. It's impossible to know all your coworkers.

"The Colorado market is probably about 150, so most people we don't see on a daily or even weekly basis," said Eric Tucker, a property manager based in Colorado Springs.

Tucker crossed paths with Chris Atwood in 2019. 

"I worked for Chris for probably about nine months before moving on to another place," Tucker explained. 

 Five years later, Atwood put out a company-wide appeal. He needed a kidney. 

"I kid you not, Eric was the first guy who stepped up. He was the first one," Atwood exclaimed. 

Atwood was diagnosed with Berger's disease. His kidney function has been declining for years. 

"When I got the news in early 2024 that my kidney function had gone down to 10, you know, it was like a brick had hit me. All of a sudden it came into reality," Atwood explained. 

His kidney's were shutting down. All the toxins that kidneys filter out were backing up in his body.

"It's a lot harder on the families, like it wasn't as hard on me as it was my wife or the people around me," he said. 

While Atwood was in the hospital preparing to go on dialysis, Tucker was going through the testing to be a donor. 

"My wife went through the testing process for one of her friends last year, and we'd had conversations kind of at length about the risks and long term effects," Tucker told CBS News Colorado. 

He turned to the donor team at HCA HealthONE Presbyterian St. Luke's to get all his questions answered. 

"We are so lucky to do what we do. I mean really, how many jobs do you know that offer the chance to work with heroes every day?"  said Christine Opp, a Living Kidney Donor Nurse Coordinator. 

Opp and her co-workers work with potential donors, helping them through the testing process. They follow very strict, ethical guidelines to make sure the donors feel comfortable and not coerced. The nurse coordinators also help recipient and their families navigate the process through surgery and post-transplant recovery.

"Most of our donors who come forward are not related to the recipient. It's usually a spouse, a friend or a stranger," Opp explained.

In Atwood's case, it was a coworker. 

"I gave Chris a call and I asked if he had any plans on the proposed surgery date, and he said he might be golfing," Tucker recalled with a laugh. 

"I can't even describe," Atwood said. "It's impossible to describe with words ... what that feels like."

"Just trying to do something good. If it was someone in your own family, you would hope that the same would be done for them," Tucker said.

The surgeries went smoothly. The two even shared a joke T-shirt that said, "Dude, where's my kidney?" Both of them recovered quickly. 

"Most days I would forget that it even happened. ... No impact on my quality of life," Tucker said. 

"For me, it's a complete transformation," Atwood interjected. 

Now the families are friends. They even sat down to Thanksgiving dinner together. They all have a lot to be thankful for every day of the year. 

LINK: Kidney Transplant Center at HCA HealthONE Presbyterian St. Luke's

April is Donate Life Month. It's the month where we honor donors who've saved lives in death, those who've become living donors, and those whose lives have been saved through organ, eye and tissue donation. It's also a good time to talk to your friend and family about your wishes around organ donation. 

LINK: Donor Alliance offers more information about organ, eye & tissue donation