Need a Kidney? Ask on Facebook

People who once sought kidneys through word of mouth or church bulletins are finding a new forum: Facebook. The website has fulfilled at least three kidney requests as many more are popping up across social media sites, the AP reports. One plea came from Seattle father Damon Brown, who was growing weak while waiting on a long list for a kidney donation. "I'm a strong guy, but I would have to say, it's been rough this year," he said.

So he started a "Damon Kidney" Facebook page and saw it attract more than 1,400 friends. One of them, a family acquaintance, soon stepped forward. "She said it wasn't really for me," Brown said. "It was for my kids, because they deserve to have a dad around." And the donor isn't worried, because she's heard that healthy women who suffer kidney failure usually lose both of them: "Right now it feels like absolutely the right thing to do." Many people don't even know that private kidney donations are legal in the US, but 6,277 of the 16,800 transplants in 2010 came from private donors. (More Facebook stories.)