The Gift

When Jermaine Washington entered the barbershop, heads turned and clippers fell silent. Customers waved and nodded, out of sheer respect. With his hands in the pockets of his knee-length, black leather coat, Washington acknowledged them with a faint smile and quietly took a seat.

"You know who that is?" barber Anthony Clyburn asked in a tone reserved for the most awesome neighborhood characters, such as ball players and ex-convicts.

A year and a half ago, Washington did something that still amazes those who know him. He became a kidney donor, giving a vital organ to a woman he described as "just a friend."

"They had an ordinary, nonromantic relationship," said Clyburn, who works at Jake's Barber Shop in Northeast Washington. "I could see maybe giving one to my mother, but just a girl I know? I don't think so."

Washington, who is 25, met Michelle Stevens six years ago when they worked for the D.C. Department of Employment Services. They used to have lunch together in the department cafeteria and chatted on the telephone during their breaks.

"It was nothing serious, romance-wise," said Stevens, who is 23. "He was somebody I could talk to. I had been on the kidney donor waiting list for 12 months and I had lost all hope. One day, I just called to cry on his shoulder."

Stevens told Washington how depressing it was to spend three days a week, three hours a day, on a kidney dialysis machine which is a machine that filters out waste material from the blood when the kidneys fail. She said she suffered from chronic fatigue and blackouts and was losing her balance and her sight. He could already see that she had lost her smile.

"I saw my friend dying before my eyes," Washington recalled. "What was I supposed to do? Sit back and watch her die?"

Stevens's mother was found to be suffering from high blood pressure and was unqualified to donate a kidney. Her 14-year-old sister offered to become a donor, but doctors concluded that she was too young.

Stevens's two brothers, 25 and 31, would most likely have made ideal donors because of their relatively young ages and status as family members. But both of them said no.

So did Stevens's boyfriend, who gave her two diamond rings with his apology.

"I understood," Stevens said. "They said they loved me very much, but they were just too afraid."

Joyce Washington, Jermaine's mother, was not exactly in favor of the idea, either. But after being convinced that her son was not being forced to do so, she supported his decision.

The transplant operation took four hours. It occurred in April 1991, and began with a painful X-ray procedure in which doctors inserted a metal rod into Washington's kidney and shut it with red dye. An opening nearly 20 inches long was made from his groin to the back of his shoulder. After the surgery he remained hospitalized for five days.

Today, both Stevens and Washington are fully recovered. Stevens, a graduate of Eastern High School, is studying medicine at the National Educational Center. Washington still works for D.C. Employment Services as a job counselor.

"I jog and work out with weights," Washington said. "Boxing and football are out, but I never played those anyway."

A spokesman for Washington Hospital Center said the Washington-to-Stevens gift was the hospital's first "friend-to-friend" transplant. Usually, it's wife to husband, or parent to child. But there is a shortage of even those kinds of transplants. Today, more than 300 patients are in need of kidneys in the Washington area.

"A woman came up to me in a movie line not long ago and hugged me," Washington said. "She thanked me for doing what I did because no one had come forth when her daughter needed a kidney, and the child died."

About twice a month, Stevens and Washington get together for what they call a gratitude lunch. Since the operation, she has broken up with her boyfriend. Seven months ago, Washington got a girlfriend. Despite occasional pressure by friends, a romantic relationship is not what they want.

"We are thankful for the beautiful relationship that we have," Stevens said. "We don't want to mess up a good thing."

To this day, people wonder why Washington did it. To some of the men gathered at Jake's Barber Shop not long ago, Washington's heroic deed was cause for questions about his sanity. Surely he could not have been in his right mind, they said.

One customer asked Washington where he had found the courage to give away a kidney. His answer silenced most skeptics and inspired even more respect.

"I prayed for it," Washington replied. "I asked God for guidance and that's what I got."