FDNY families celebrate lifesaving organ donations from fallen firefighters 

Retired FDNY Lt. Kevin Williams had been waiting for a kidney for more than a year.

The families of the two fallen firefighters who helped answer his prayers gathered Friday to celebrate the gift of life.

Williams, 72, of Patchogue, a 35-year FDNY veteran and 9/11 first responder, was in stage-five kidney failure, awaiting dialysis. He said he had been submitting blood to try to match a kidney through North Shore University’s Transplant Center.

First, Williams said he met Kristina Moon, the widow of Islip firefighter Billy Moon who died two years ago when he fell Dec. 12, 2022 in his Brooklyn firehouse while preparing for a training exercise. Williams said she helped him learn about the organ procurement process through her foundation and how to search for a match.

Then In May, the family of firefighter Thomas Hoey, 67, said they wanted to donate the 42-year-veteran firefighter’s organs after he died from a brain hemorrhage. The family designated Williams as a direct recipient, but it wasn’t a match.

Even though they didn’t match, Williams said the intended donation helped match him with a new kidney from another still-anonymous donor just days later. Hoey’s organ went to another recipient on the transplant waiting list.

"It’s a very humbling and emotional thing," Williams said Friday at FDNY Ladder Company 112 in Brooklyn. "I’m trying not to cry, but It was quite an amazing chain of events."

He met with Hoey’s family Friday for the first time at Hoey’s former firehouse in Bushwick, including Hoey’s wife, twin daughters and his son, who is also a firefighter.

Hoey’s daughter Shana Ehrhardt, 39, of Little Neck, said the organ donation helped save Williams’ life and one other recipient they do not know. She said it also allowed her family to move past the grief of losing their father and celebrate him both as a firefighter and an organ donor.

"I love the fact that my dad was able to do that, not only for him, but a fireman that he dedicated his life to," Ehrhardt said. "And it allows us to constantly live all these moments leading up to this ... We're living on, it's like we're able to be present with him constantly through this first year of him being gone."

Faced with needing a new kidney, Williams said he didn’t know where to begin and asked his fellow firefighters for help.

Williams asked his former chief, Joseph Cunningham, how to find a donor. He then discovered the Billy Moon Foundation, the nonprofit started last year to raise awareness of the organ donation process.

"I said I need a kidney, and he said to me, ‘what are you doing about it?’" Williams said. "I asked, how do you do it? who do you ask? He said to me, ‘If you don't ask for help, you’re not going to get it.’ So, I decided right then and there to do something about it and I looked up the Billy Moon Foundation."

Kristina Moon met Williams at a fundraiser for the foundation in May at Mulcahy's in Wantagh and also learned of Hoey’s story three weeks later.

Moon started the foundation in her husband’s memory following his death and when he donated organs to save the lives of five people, including two 9/11 first responders from Long Island.

Moon said fire department officials asked about the process of organ donations, including finding a donation for Williams through hospital staff and the state nonprofit, LiveOnNY, that helps facilitate donations through the federal organ transplant list.

Moon said she hopes the foundation increases the awareness of organ donations and how they can save lives. Last year, she and her children met the recipient of her husband’s heart, including listening to his heartbeat now belonging to Richard Grehl, 64, of Suffern. They also saved a recording of his heartbeat in a teddy bear.

"It's a miracle that it’s another firefighter, but I don't think it's just about the firefighter," Moon said. "I think it's just about the fact of helping somebody else to have a second chance of life with a healthy new organ. Being a part of that community definitely helps people get their message out, but really it just comes down to wanting to make sure another person is being saved."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.