When Vinny Falcone saw the Northwest Herald story online last December, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

“Immediately, I sent Mike and Teresa a message – ‘Lets figure this out and see if I am a match,’” Falcone said.

Falcone’s brother, who lives in McHenry County, had forwarded him the article about Mike Baber’s search for a live kidney donor. His wife, Teresa Baber, was offering up her kidney to someone else in need if it meant getting one for her husband.

Falcone has known the Babers, who live in Marengo, for 40 years. While they kept tabs on each other on and off, he did not know his old friend needed a kidney.

As a Christian, Falcone also believed it was his duty to help, he said, adding it was a conversation he’d recently had with his son about stepping up to help others in a crisis.

“It is one of those things we all want to say. We want to believe we will be the person who runs towards the danger to save somebody or jump in front of a car to push someone out of the way. It is the same thing, if someone needed a kidney,” Falcone said.

The Northwest Herald story had “a lot of shares on Facebook,” Teresa Baber said. “People they know shared it with people we know.”

In total, five people offered to be tested to see if their kidney would work for Baber.

“Vinny called Mike and they talked. In January, he started being tested,” Teresa Baber said.

Her husband has other health challenges, including Crohn’s disease, that likely led to his kidneys shutting down. While his kidney function remained above the cutoff for dialysis, it continued to worsen.

“I have known for 20 years that the time would come” to get the transplant, he said.

They decided it was time to get the word out, but they had no idea if a public appeal for a donor would work.

“I knew there would be a certain amount of luck involved, but I believe you create your own luck,” Mike Baber said.

Falcone, who lives in Menasha, Wisconsin, about 45 miles south of Green Bay, underwent three months of testing, in both Rockford and Chicago’s University of Illinois Hospital, to ensure he could donate.

“It was probably a dozen times, heading to Rockford for this test or that test,” he said.

During the testing phase, he was asked over and over if anyone was paying, coercing or guilting him into donating, Falcone said.

“I never, at any point in this process, thought that I shouldn’t do this. That never entered my mind,” he said.

There were a few hiccups, including Falcone needed an MRI to ensure slightly enlarged prostate wasn’t something to be concerned about, and he needed to drop his blood pressure.

The surgery was on April 7. Falcone was back at work a week later.

Recovery was a little harder for Mike Baber. He also ended up having his gallbladder removed during the surgery.

“I had a lot of complications. ... I wanted a complete tune-up,” he joked.

In all, Baber went back into the hospital three times for a total of seven weeks following the surgery. He finally came home for good on May 27.

“He is still not 100% at six months, but we have gotten over the hurdle,” Teresa Baber said.

Mike Baber said he understands that his friend believes it was faith and divine intervention that connected them again.

“I come from a more logical way of looking at the world. I believe in karma - if good stuff goes out, good stuff comes in,” said Baber, who is Jewish.

He gets his friend’s point of view, Falcone said, but that doesn’t change his.

“For me ... my faith and my appreciation for what Jesus did for me makes this kidney [donation] like nothing. It is the least that I could and should do,” Falcone said.

He’s made a few changes now that he’s down to one kidney, including abstaining from alcohol after what he called falling “full-throttle into the Wisconsin lifestyle.”

Mike Baber is making changes, too, including no longer riding his motorcycle to ensure the gift he was given is protected. He also plans to work with the Rockford-based UI Health clinic he visits to write articles and do other marketing to encourage more kidney donations.

“That is where I see my best energy being spent, to make some difference within the kidney community,” Mike Baber said.

Falcone credited the doctors involved with making his donation possible. They “know what they are doing and are extremely talented,” he said.

He also doesn’t claim to be a saint for giving away a kidney, calling himself “a jerk” and “not a good person. I have stories.”

“But none of this happens without the Holy Spirit in me. You have to bear a cross. If none of us decides to bear a cross, then nobody gets help,” he said.