(SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE) — VENICE, Florida — There are times when Christine Higbee and Zack Pacyna finish each other’s sentences — usually punctuated by a laugh or side joke — and almost always when they explain how the 45-year-old mother of seven decided to give her 26-year-old co-worker one of her kidneys.
Higbee and Pacyna, who both work at the Lowe’s just south of Venice, have known each other for about seven years. She got to know Zack because he works for her boyfriend, Rich LaVance, on the overnight shift, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
When Pacyna switched to days, she naturally wanted to know why. She learned it was because his kidneys were failing and he was spending his nights, from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., hooked up to a dialysis machine. He has Alport syndrome, a genetic kidney disease.