This young man volunteered to undergo the procedure even though he didn’t have to.

It’s not like he got a kidney transplant for funsies. He needed a kidney transplant. He just didn’t need to be awake for it.

Nicolas was first diagnosed with chronic kidney disease during high school in 2013. After moving to Chicago in 2022, his kidney function had deteriorated and doctors at Northwestern told him he needed to get a transplant.

The Northwestern team picked him as a candidate for the awake transplant because he was young, otherwise healthy and also willing to go ahead with it.