Albert Haynesworth reveled July 10, 2019, that he was in need of a life-saving kidney transplant. It took almost two years for the former NFL defensive lineman to find a match with “a real living Angel.”
Haynesworth posted a photo on Instagram last week, announcing he had undergone a successful transplant. Zach Penny, a physical therapist assistant from Crossett, Arkansas, donated his healthy left kidney to Haynesworth.
“Now, I feel better,” Haynesworth told Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com. “I see changes in my body. Now I am kind of discovering another new norm.”
Haynesworth, 39, said he took a Toradol shot before nearly every one of the 123 NFL games he played in 10 seasons. He blames that for contributing to his kidney failure.
“A lot of it, honestly, is from the crap we used to take,” Haynesworth said. “At 33, two years out of the league, my kidney function was below 50 percent. So it has to be the junk that we were taking, like Toradol. Everybody used to line up to get their Toradol shots and take the pills afterward and all of that s---. I guarantee that had a lot to do with it because that really kills the kidneys.”
Haynesworth underwent surgery April 15 with Dr. David Shaffer of Vanderbilt Hospital giving Haynesworth new life with Penny’s kidney.