Brendan Costello’s organ donation helps several people, including a Westchester doctor

Brendan Costello, a New York City writer and disability-rights advocate who died after a coma, was a registered organ donor whose lungs and kidneys were transplanted to multiple recipients, including Dr. Sylvio Burcescu, who received Costello’s left kidney and returned to treating patients in Westchester County.

Costello, who used a wheelchair after a D train accident and was known as a writer, teacher and jazz aficionado, suffered cardiac arrest in January after months of surgeries and rehabilitation to stabilize his spine and lapsed into a coma. Family members were told he would never regain consciousness, and his sister Darlene Costello decided to have him removed from a ventilator — only to learn seconds before that he was a registered organ donor.

After tests and preparations, relatives, friends and staff formed an honor guard as a bed carried Costello to the operating room at Mount Sinai Morningside. His lungs went to a woman in Tennessee, his right kidney to a man in Pennsylvania, and his left kidney to Dr. Burcescu, 62, who had been on dialysis for a rare kidney disease.

Dr. Burcescu said his recovery has been “night and day,” and he is back to treating hundreds of patients, including people with substance abuse, alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. Costello’s family is navigating a year of firsts without him — holidays and his July 14 birthday — and his sister has begun writing plays that were staged at the Newburgh Fringe Festival.

Key Topics

Health, Brendan Costello, Sylvio Burcescu, Mount Sinai Morningside, Westchester County, Organ Donation