United States: Hawaiian hotel worker becomes employee of the year
A Hawaiian waiter has been named employee of the year after he donated his own kidney to save the life of a guest.
The incredible tale comes from the Hawaiian resort of Waikiki Beach, where 52-year-old waiter Jose Rocasa decided he could do without one of his own kidneys to save the life of Walter Nikiosha, who was seriously ill with kidney disease and needed a transplant urgently. Against all the odds, the Sunday Telegraph reports, the kidney was discovered to be a perfect match.
Mr Rocasa told the newspaper: “I just wanted to help him; for years we have this friendship in which he comes to lunch and I do my best to make him happy, and he is always good to me in return. So of course I say, ‘Don’t worry – I can give you a kidney’.”
Unsurprisingly, Mr Rocasa won the top prize in the Radisson’s international employee of the year competition, as well as from the Hawaiian Hotel Association. The manager of the Radisson Prince Kuhio, JoAnn Saazese, said: “You just have to know Jose. He’s the sort of waiter who is always saying, ‘Well, let me see if I can do that for you’. He has that kind of heart in him.”
