Jesse Eisenberg details why he donated his kidney to a stranger
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
Jesse Eisenberg has explained in a recent TV appearance why he decided to donate a kidney to a complete stranger.
The actor revealed last October that he was donating his kidney 'in six weeks' to someone he had never met before.
"I don’t know why," Eisenberg explained to NBC's Today programme at the time. "I got bitten by the blood donation bug. I’m doing an altruistic donation [in] mid-December. I’m so excited to do it."
The surgery has come and gone, with Eisenberg revealing in a recent interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he didn't need a compelling reason to undertake the wonderful act of kindness.
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"Well, I learned about this, and this is just, like, something anybody could do," Einsenberg said.
He went on to say he now lives a 'perfectly normal' life and that the whole procedure was pain-free.
"It was quick, they compensate you if you have to miss work to get the surgery," the 42-year-old said.
Eisenberg went on to say one of the reasons he decided to undergo the surgery is because 'they say you live a longer life'.
He went on: "They put you through such a battery of tests, before you donate, that you end up living, like, they say, longer than your nondonor peers, because, you know, you have to be so healthy to do it.
"So I live a perfectly normal life, my other kidney is growing, and somebody else, you know, who was on dialysis or dying, you know, is able to have a real life now."
Fallon then went on to praise Eisenberg's act of kindness, saying: "That's amazing, that is an amazing thing that you did! I love you, dude. very generous!"
Kidney donation is generally considered a safe procedure, with donors undergoing extensive medical screening prior to the surgery to determine whether they are suitable.
However, unlikely complications of the procedure include bleeding, wound infection, pneumonia, and adverse reactions to anesthesia, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Speaking about the procedure before undergoing it, Eisenberg told the Today programme: "It’s essentially risk-free and so needed. I think people will realise that it’s a no-brainer, if you have the time and the inclination.
"Let’s say person X needs a kidney in Kansas City [and] their child or whoever was going to donate to them is, for whatever set of reasons, not a match, but somehow I am. That person can still get my kidney and hopefully that child of that person still donates their kidney, right?
"But it goes to a bank where that person can find a match recipient, but it only works if there is basically an altruistic donor.”