NASHVILLE, Tenn. — More than 100,000 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant.
Dave Steele will soon take his name off that list thanks to his best friend, Michael Agostino.
Their friendship began about 10 years ago when they worked together at Waffle House.
"We hit it off really quick and we've been friends and pretty much brothers ever since," Dave said.
A decade later, Michael Agostino is a student at LMU DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harrogate.
"He's been studying and his face is always in a book. And so you know he has to have some kind of realization of what's going on in the world so I call him with, I call it the David News Network. I call him on Friday night and tell him what's going on in the world," Dave said.
He keeps his sense of humor as he deals with daily medicine and the aftermath of a leg amputation. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 17 years old.
Michael said, "I've always been willing to help them with whatever I could. And it wasn't until very recently that I learned about the potential to be a kidney donor."
In this season of boxes and bows, Michael is giving something to Dave that can't be wrapped.
Kidney transplant surgery is set for December 29 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
They finished pre-op appointments Tuesday.
"I've never been admitted to a hospital or emergency room or, heck, I've never even had stitches before so it's a very new experience for me," Michael said.
Dave said, "I feel so blessed that my best friend, pretty much practically my brother, is doing this for me. It's given me more years of life to be with my fiance, get married, hang out with him and just be with my family and just be a alive. It's just an amazing thing."
Michael said, "He really is part of our family. He really is like my brother to me."
They purposely planned the surgery over winter break to not interrupt Michael's studies at LMU-DCOM.
"I told Michael, that when all this is said and done, I want to take him to a live wrestling show because I'm a big wrestling fan and he's never been to a show," Dave said.
Michael should be out of the hospital by New Year's Eve and Dave is expected to go home a few days later.
"It pretty much ranks at the best Christmas of all time," Dave said.
His fiance has started a gofundme page called David is getting a new kidney.