A World War II veteran's advertisement offering to sell an eye or kidney for money to pay for a knee operation got results, but not the kind he expected.
In the seven days since Ray White ran the ad in an effort to raise $20,000 for knee-replacement surgery, the 71-year-old veteran estimates he has received 300 calls of support.Some people sent money and checks for $5, $10 or $20. Others visited the trailer he shares with his wife of 51 years, Gladys.
A pain therapist who read about his predicament drove all the way from Cleveland to try to help him. The treatment helped some but didn't alleviate his suffering, White says.
The man wouldn't take money but didn't leave empty-handed.
"I fixed him up," White says. "I asked him, `You like fish?' I had some walleye. I gave him four pounds."
White returned the last of the monetary donations, $10 from a Canton, Ohio, sympathizer, Tuesday.
"I sent back nine checks up to $25. I'm not going to keep their money. I need it, but I don't need it that bad. These are just poor people and they can't afford it."
But he also learned that there wasn't much of a market for his eye and kidneys. He got no calls from prospective buyers.
White was encouraged by the outpouring of support. "It shows you somebody cares," he says.
"Ex-GI will sell one eye or one kidney to pay for operation so I can walk again," read the ad he placed in the Sandusky Register.
"This thing hurts so damn bad I can't take it no more," he later told The Toledo Blade.
After the ad ran, Veterans Affairs officials set up an appointment for him with a leg specialist in Ann Arbor, Mich., for Thursday.
White is appreciative but remains wary of the agency. VA officials, he says, didn't show much interest in his problems until stories about his plight began turning up in newspapers and on TV last week.
Veterans officials say his criticism is unfair. Dennis Bahnsen, veterans services officer for Ottawa County, said White has been under treatment at a Toledo VA clinic but that knee-replacement surgery will have to wait until other health problems, including obesity and blood clots, are cleared up.
White vows to do whatever it takes to get a new knee. "I'll lose the weight," he says. "The pain has been horrible for the past two years."
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.