Hero - Bruce Cohen
When Ron Silberman met Bruce Cohen 28 years ago while their families were vacationing in Stuart, Fla., both were teenagers who had no idea how important that friendship would become.
On March 13, 2003 during a transplant procedure at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Weston, Cohen donated a kidney to Silberman, who had polycystic kidney disease. The genetic disorder had caused Silberman's kidneys to function at only 20 percent and to grow so large that they were displacing his internal organs. He was severely malnourished because he couldn't put solid food in his stomach anymore.
