Ivan Young shook his head with a mixture of frustration and relief as he recalled the monthslong battle persuading his father to take one of his kidneys.

Osbarn Young, a military man from Honduras and a retired medical technician, didn't want his 28-year-old son putting his own life in danger. After all, the two hadn't even been particularly close in recent years.

"I didn't understand him, and he didn't understand me," Ivan said, recounting a childhood where his father was always working and rarely around. "I felt we were never close. But I never doubted his love for me."

So as he watched his father grow progressively weaker from the kidney disease brought on by hypertension and diabetes, Ivan decided he didn't want to see his father become another statistic.

Ivan will meet his father in the operating room Wednesday. Both hope the operations will give the elder Young a normal life again.

For months, the elder Young had refused to go along with the operation. After being rejected twice, Ivan said it came down to an emotional meeting during a birthday party for his nephew at the elder Young's home. With the sound of children playing at the party, Ivan took his father into the elder Young's bedroom.

Ivan reassured his father that the doctors said donating a kidney was not a problem. Then he told Osbarn he "wanted him around to see me get married, to see me finish law school and to be around to play with my children and his other grandchildren," Ivan recalled.

There was a long pause, and silence filled the room. Then, Ivan said he looked at his father and saw something in his eyes that he was not accustomed to seeing—tears. "He held me, and I held him," Ivan said. "We didn't say much. We never do." Ivan doesn't view his actions as heroic. He knows that his recovery will take several weeks. But his sister said he is courageous.

"This is a big operation. My father felt that Ivan might be in the same situation as he is one day," Ivan's sister said. "But my other two brothers and I told him without hesitation that if Ivan needs us one day, we will be there for him," she said. "Just like he is for our father."