Why KROQ's Bean Is Giving Away A Kidney This Week

TMZ Live pt3 11/02/12

This week, KROQ's Gene "Bean" Baxter -- the co-host of L.A.'s No. 1-rated (in demos) "Kevin & Bean" morning show -- will go under the knife in order to donate a kidney to Scott Mason, CBS Radio's west coast head of engineering. Bean, who works out of a studio in his home near Seattle, will be down here to undergo surgery at Cedars-Sinai on November 13. He first learned of Mason's failing kidneys when the engineer made his annual trip up to Washington state to do maintenance on Bean's studio.

During that visit, Bean noticed how unwell Mason (who's been with KROQ since 1979, and once served as an on-air jock) looked. At KROQ's site, Bean wrote about his big decision to step in and help Mason out; here's an excerpt:

Scott has had medical issues for much of his adult life, including his kidneys failing, and that led him to have a transplant from a cadaver back in 1999. Well, now that one has failed too and Scott is back on dialysis for many hours a week. The kidney processes waste out of the blood and without one your body is being poisoned all the time. The dialysis helps but is a temporary solution. You only get off the machine if you get a new kidney or you die.

He explained his situation and that he was about six years out on the waiting list for a new kidney. That was inconceivable to me, to imagine that all over America there are people like Scott, who are very sick and might die, waiting for organs at the same time that literally of thousands of them are being buried every year.

If nothing else, I hope everyone reading this will double check that their wishes are known and that they will make their liver, lungs, eyes and whatever else can be harvested after their death to help another human. (Here is one resource for more information on that.)

Bean has done several interviews on his decision since then, including TMZ Live (above). If anything, he seems to be having a big impact on spreading donor awareness among KROQ listeners. We'll be wishing him and Scott Mason luck this week, and a speedy recovery. He hopes to be back on the air by after the Thanksgiving holiday.