Facebook post spurs kidney donor

HARTFORD, Conn. – Politicians long ago discovered the uses of Facebook. The mayor of a Connecticut city found something else there: a constituent who needed her kidney.

East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon is recovering after undergoing the surgery to help save the life of a man she knew only casually. She says she became involved in 44-year-old Carlos Sanchez’s case shortly after reading a status update in August saying he needed a kidney and no relatives or friends were a match.

The mayor says she decided to be tested and came up as a match. She was then running for a second term as mayor of her New Haven suburb.

They underwent the transplant surgery two weeks ago and are both doing well.