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A 22-year-old gay man died from complications after donating a kidney to his homophobic father.
Gabriel Barros of Pernambuco, Brazil, was kicked out of his home when he was 16 years old, according to Brazilian publication Area VIP. Despite remaining estranged from his father, Barros didn’t hesitate when he found out the man needed a kidney and he was the only match in the family.
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“He never held a grudge,” Barros’s cousin told the publication. “He said that, regardless of everything, this was his father, and he couldn’t let him die.”
Barros’s gift saved his father, but Barros himself died after an internal hemorrhage and sepsis. His father reportedly did not attend his son’s funeral or wake because he was still recovering from the transplant.
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Tributes to Barros have poured in across social media, with many debating whether he should have committed the act of kindness at all, considering the way his father treated him.
Brazil has the highest percentage of homeless LGBTQ+ youth in Latin America, with approximately 30-40% of the country’s homeless youth identifying as part of the community, according to a report from the International Journal on Homelessness.
Despite the country’s progressive laws, it consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous for LGBTQ+ people and is considered particularly dangerous for trans people.
While kidney donation carries short-term risks associated with the surgery itself, UCLA Health notes that donating a kidney does not reduce the donor’s life expectancy. The remaining kidney increases in size to compensate for the loss of the other kidney.
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