Inmate Gives Brother Cop Organ Transplant In Hawaii
Story by kitv.com
HONOLULU --
Brotherly love proved stronger than prison walls last week when an inmate came to the rescue of his younger brother, who happens to be a Honolulu Police Department officer.
Last year, doctors told Officer Bradley DeBlake, a young father, that his kidneys were failing and dialysis would only slightly delay a premature death.
"I bought my kids whatever they wanted, told them 'You want something? I'll buy you' cause my thing was 'I don't know how much longer I am going to be with you,'" DeBlake said.
eeking a transplant he turned to his older brother, Jonathan. That is not unusual for a patient to turn to a family member, except that Jonathan DeBlake was a Halawa Prison inmate doing 10 years behind bars for selling drugs.
"We had our rocky times, but I mean brothers are brothers," Bradley DeBlake said. "Explaining my situation I said, 'I am dying man. You know what I mean?' He just told me 'Whatever I got to do I'll do.' He told me 'I'll help you out whatever I can.'"
Doctors were concerned about a donor in the unhealthy prison environment.
"So they're like 'You know it is a very, very high risk thing we are going to try here. Do you really want to go with it?' I said, 'I got to take that chance,'" Bradley DeBlake said.
Doctors at Hawaii Medical Center East performed the surgery on the siblings.
His officer friends joked that a criminal's kidney might turn the cop to the dark side. However, in some ways the inmate seemed more changed, some said.
"It's heart wrenching. I mean that, a clear sign of somebody that is very heroic," Sgt. Tenari Maafala, who is part of the Honolulu Police Department's Peer Support Unit.
As he headed back to his cell on Monday, Jonathan DeBlake's surgical pain was obvious. He was not allowed to talk to KITV.
"I told him 'You don't' understand. I am seeing my light of my life going like this,' I told him, 'and you are opening it back up for me. You don't understand,'" Bradley DeBlake said. "All he does is shake my hand and tell me 'Oh, we did it. We did it.' I am just grateful."
A fundraiser for the two men's medical costs is planned for January.
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