Tag Archives: donation
Mother Donates Kidney to Boss in Need and is Subsequently Fired
Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old mother of two, from Long Island, New York, had offered her kidney to her boss Jackie Brucia, 61, after she had mentioned she was having a difficult time finding a donor.
Stevens has filed a legal complaint at the Human Rights Commission in New York, which claims that her boss, Brucia, used her and then after getting what she wanted, fired her, according to the New York Post.
‘I feel very betrayed. This has been a very hurtful and horrible experience for me.
‘She just took this gift and put it on the ground and kicked it.’
BOSS: Jackie Brucia, 61
Brucia was Stevens’ boss at a billion dollar Atlantic Automotive Group that ran car dealerships in New York. Although Stevens had left the company in June of 2010 after moving to Florida, she decided to move back to Long Island and asked for her job back. Fortunately, Brucia agreed without hesitation to give Stevens her job back, and it is now assumed she may have had ulterior motives.
Just two months after being re-employed, Brucia approached Debbie Stevens and asked if she would still be interested in donating the kidney that she had offered to do so while still in Florida.
‘She was my boss, I respected her,’ Stevens told the Post. ‘It’s just who I am. I didn’t want her to die.’
Although she wasn’t a match for Brucia, she donated to another group, which would then make sure that her boss would be able to get a kidney from someone in that group. After the surgery, she said she was in excruciating pain. She felt pressured to go into work, and unfortunately, wasn’t able to stay for the day (after 3 days) and returned home. This, was not okay with Brucia.
‘You can’t come and go as you please,’ her boss allegedly said. ‘People are going to think you’re getting special treatment.’
Stevens was then yelled at before being demoted to a car dealership that was now 50 miles from her place of residence. After Stevens’ lawyers wrote a letter to the company, she was fired. Brucia’s husband alleges these are all falsely exaggerated claims, yet Stevens says they are nothing but the truth. In either scenario one of these women has been very cruel. Getting fired after giving someone a kidney for ludicrous claims is wrong. But then again, giving someone a kidney and acting as if you’re owed something, getting fired and then suing to get what you want, is also very wrong. And unfortunately, we don’t know what really happened here.
Related articles
- Following The Kidney Chain (webnerhouse.com)
- ‘I gave my boss my kidney – and she took my heart’: New York mum’s ‘betrayal’ after claims that boss she donated life-saving organ to FIRES her (mirror.co.uk)
- A Rapid City mother donates kidney to son (taishalwalker.com)
- “Transplant Chain” of Kidney Donors, Recipients Meet for the First Time (kstp.com)
- Ms. Brucia’s 7th graders (imjustwalkin.com)
- “This tragic story has been flying around the internet for the past few days. The story was broken in…” (kidneynotes.com)
Legendary Comedian Turns New York Panhandler: Owns 3.5M Home, Donates Earnings
This is one of those stories that you hear and think, “wow, there’s still a chance for humanity.” But then you realize that this is precisely that, one story.
Professor Irwin Corey was not only an intellectual, but he was also a comedian, actor and liberal activist. He has been patrolling Manhattan’s East 35th Street for 17 years, collecting small amounts of money from the people who unknowingly gave to a once very well-known man.
Of course professor Corey – who has enjoyed a long and illustrious career spanning Broadway, television, theatre and comedy clubs – does not need the money.
In fact he is not even homeless, despite his scruffy, scrawny appearance, but has an apartment in an affluent area of New York which he believes to be worth $3.5million.
His reasons for posing as a homeless down-and-outer and hassling drivers for change are two-fold: Since his wife of seventy years Fran died in May he said it helps beat the loneliness.
Since he doesn’t need the money, he donates all of his earnings, sometime even $250/day, to a charity located in Cuba that buys medical supplies for the children there.
He has had a career since a VERY young age, and has worked alongside many well-known personalities, such as Jackie Gleason and Woody Allen. He also appeared on The Late Night with David Letterman. He hasn’t stopped yet and still continues to perform.
Mr Corey has cultivated his ‘professor’ charade since the 1940s, with his trademark black tails, a string tie, high-top sneakers and scarecrow hairdo.
Though his stage persona is known more of its witty one-liners, put down of hecklers and nonsensical observations, he is mild-mannered to those who give him money on the street, always expressing gratitude and telling them: ‘See you later, alligator.’
Mr Corey has travelled to Cuba to donate personally, he said, and has photographs on his wall with Fidel Castro, alongside one of him on the David Letterman show in 1982, and with the likes of the comedian Dick Gregory and the actor Ossie Davis.
Related articles
- 97-Year-Old Comic Fronts As Street Beggar (buzzfeed.com)
- Things I learned…about Professor Irwin Corey (marksloanmd.wordpress.com)
- Cuban spy free from Florida jail (msnbc.msn.com)
- Comedians angry with Jerry Lewis’ telethon end (cbsnews.com)