One day after Supt. Eddie Johnson underwent a kidney transplant, he got a surprise visit -- from his first deputy and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
"We brought him matzo ball soup from Manny’s," Emanuel said. "It's an old recipe we got in the family. He looks great, he sounds great, his spirits are up."
Johnson's doctors at Rush University Medical Center agreed Chicago's top cop is "recovering very well from his successful kidney transplant operation," noting his vital signs are stable and his kidney is "working perfectly."
His doctors even said Johnson, who received a living donor transplant from his son, Daniel, is already out of bed and listening to his emails.
"The kidney re-profused very well," Dr. Edward Hollinger said. "So when the blood went into the kidney, it started making urine right away."
That is a good sign for the 57-year-old Johnson who is expected to spend the next four to six weeks recovering from the surgery and is already talking about work.
"I think we got like 10 seconds of how he was doing, and he immediately wanted to talk shop," Emanuel said.
Doctors said they expect a speedy recovery for Johnson and noted they are seeing an uptick in organ donation in the wake of the superintendent’s openness about his surgery.
"We have 4,000 people in Illinois waiting for a life-saving transplant," Gift of Hope CEO J. Kevin Cmunt said, "and we are one of the leading areas of the country when it comes to donations thanks to the generosity of Chicagoans."
And the superintendent is grateful.
"The superintendent has emphasized throughout this how important donation is," Hollinger said, "and how he is hopeful that others in Chicago can receive the gift that he has got."
