Cable News Veteran Richard Roth Thanks CNN Colleague on Air for Saving His Life With Kidney Donation
CNN’s New Day served up some heartwarming news with the story of how the network’s senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, had a life-saving operation thanks to a colleague who gave him one of her kidneys.
On Monday, Brianna Keilar and John Avlon told viewers that Roth, the last remaining original employee of CNN, sent out a company-wide memo telling his co-workers he was in need of a kidney transplant. Samira Jafari, the deputy managing editor of CNN’s investigations unit, was among those who offered to be a donor to Roth, and a series of medical tests wound up showing they were a compatible match.
Roth and Jafari both appeared on the program to talk about the procedures they went through with the Yale Medical Center to make the transplant happen. As he spoke about his recovery, Roth offered Jafari his gratitude as he said “I’m very blessed. I’m not very lucky at the racetracks — one of my loves — but so far with this medical lifeline that Samira has given me, it’s onward and upward.”
Jafari described her own recovery too, but she also spoke about how the surgery brought her closer to Roth since they only knew each other through their work before she was touched by his request for aid.
“I knew he was a CNN original. I also had a great admiration for what he did as a journalist and who he was,” she said. “Just as a human, it felt like something I could do at that point in my life. It just felt possible for me to do this. I knew just at a basic level, I knew these surgeries are successful, but that the real difficulty…is finding donors. I felt like I was at a place in my life where maybe I could raise my hand and get it started and maybe be the match.”
The two went on by explaining how they got in contact with each other after former CNN chief Jeff Zucker brought up Roth’s plight on a conference call. Jafari said Roth’s email might have been lost in the clutter were it not for that, and “I’m just really glad I didn’t [miss it].”
“Richard doesn’t need to do anything else. He’s shown nothing but gratitude and courage through this whole process,” she said. “I just really, really want people to understand that this would not be possible without our surgeons. We have amazing surgeons…Their team was incredible. The minute I met them, I knew this was completely doable, not just for me, but a lot of people. They really should be commended in this process.”
Watch above, via CNN.
