From old friend to kidney donor: Former Quincy city councilor gets 'a new life'

QUINCY − Two weeks ago, Brad Croall's life looked very different than it does today.

He was receiving kidney dialysis eight to 10 hours per night, balancing life as a father of three children younger than 8 years old and waiting, waiting, waiting for an organ donor who could save his life.

On March 30, everything changed. He had kidney transplant surgery.

"I'm home," Croall said in a recent interview. "I'm walking around, I'm doing my thing. I'm sore from the surgery, but that's part of the deal."

Croall, a former Ward 2 city councilor, received a kidney donated by an old friend, New Hampshire resident Mike Smith. The transplant came almost exactly two years after Croall, 41 at the time, checked himself in to South Shore Hospital on Easter Sunday in 2021 and was diagnosed soon after with Stage 4 kidney disease.

"The redemption, two years later, is crazy," Croall said. "I'm pretty grounded in my faith and I turn to that a lot in these unfortunate circumstances. ... The power of God showed up throughout this whole process, no question."

In January 2022, a year after he stepped down from his seat on the city council, Croall's wife spoke to The Patriot Ledger about her husband's need for a kidney transplant. The article, Croall said, led to a "huge amount of outpouring from the community."

A similar article later appeared in the Quincy Sun and landed on Mike Smith's kitchen table. In the end, more than 60 people offered to be tested as a possible match.

"If it wasn't for the Ledger story, we would have never had that word spread," Croall said.

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Croall and Smith were friends before Smith's 2018 move from Quincy but had largely lost touch over the last five years. After seeing the article in the summer of 2021, Smith signed up to see if he was a match. In September, the testing at Massachusetts General Hospital began. A few months later, he learned he was a match, and Smith underwent a vigorous screening to find out if he was healthy enough to donate. At the beginning of March, they got the go-ahead.

"When I signed up, I thought my chances were low because I came in so late in the game and I'm 56 years old. I thought I was a little older than what they were looking for, but, you know, the best physical you'll ever get in your life is if you want to give a kidney. It's a relief to know that I'm a pretty healthy guy," Smith said with a laugh. "Really, my health was almost more important than Brad's health. Doctors swear to do no harm, so they have to have a really good reason to cut into me and think we'll have a pretty high success rate."

The surgery at Mass General took four hours and had an initial two-hour recovery period before Croall and Smith were reunited with their loved ones. After those six hours, Croall said he "immediately felt better."

"My wife had come into the room at that point and she was crying because she said she could actually see my face. What I didn't realize was how much fluid my body was carrying," Croall said.

"When you think about organ donors, from the recipient's perspective, they transform someone's life almost immediately. If you could get that kind of return in the stock market, you'd be a very rich man."

Croall and Smith left the hospital three days later.

Smith, who said he walked 5 miles the morning of April 7, is ahead of the curve when it comes to his own recovery. He said he was motivated by not only friendship, but by the fact that Croall is a father of kids ages 7, 5 and 19 months.

"When you read these stories, you think, 'Would I be willing to do that? To make a major sacrifice to help someone?' I always thought I was the kind of person who would, but really you don't know until the opportunity presents itself," Smith said.

"A human being is born with two kidneys and you only need one. I keep telling Brad, 'I have an extra. Don't worry about it.' I really looked at is an an honor that I got to do this. His children get to grow up with their father, and Brad gets to resume his place in the community. It was an honor to do it and I would do it over again."

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As for Croall, who said he initially didn't love being painted as "the sick guy" in news articles, he said he's already looking into ways to advocate for organ donation and help those who are living the way he was − in a state of limbo.

"I was blessed to be in a community I love that loves me, and we had a lot of people cheering for us with a major support system. Were my mind goes now is, 'What about people who don't have that? Who is helping them?'" Croall said. "What I plan to do is explore avenues to further educate myself and see where I can be of service. I've been in those dialysis clinics and I know there are people there who need help. I feel so good. I was literally given a new life overnight, and that's pretty powerful stuff."

Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Brad Croall, former Quincy city councilor, gets kidney transplant