In 2009 Chris had a kidney transplant thanks to the generosity of Scott Pakudaitis, An acquaintance that changed the course of his life. Strouth had a long fight with IgA nephropathy a disease with no outward symptoms until its essentially too late, a disease that he had most likely since he was 12 years old, a fight that eventually saw him unable to send for more than three minutes at a time, and eventually being on dialysis, and He tweeted about the whole ordeal on Twitter and Facebook eventually becoming the first person to get an organ via Social media. The story was covered at length in the media, with appearances in everything to the Washington Post to the Rikki Lake show and was one of the first stories featured in Twitter’s Stories section.
Chris’s health is going well (Knock on Wood), and has been a board member for the Minnesota chapter of National Kidney Foundation since 2010
The following is a play list of video’s the first being his document of it, and the others a series of interviews for University of Minnesota Medical Center
A few other articles that may be of interest:
“Twitter may save Chris Strouth’s life” by Hart Van Dusenberg , City Pages