When Tom Walter called Northside High School student, Kevin Jordan, to join the Wake Forest college team, little did he know that he was promising him a little more than a stellar career in baseball. On Monday, Walter donated one of his kidneys to Jordan when none of his family members were proven to be good matches. Jordan began facing kidney failure two months before joining the team. They are both currently recovering at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

According to Fox Sports, Jordan could not describe his gratitude towards his coach at the news conference held at Emory, saying, “I’m just really thankful. I don’t think I have the words for it in my vocabulary…Thankful is as good as it gets.”

Jordan, a native of Columbus, Georgia rejected the likes of Arizona State, Vanderbilt and Auburn, and committed himself to playing for the small Wake Forest team because he liked the school’s academics and he took a liking to 42-year-old Walter, according to ESPN. He was so good that the Yankees drafted him last year in the 19^th round.  Jordan began feeling sick in his senior year of high school, and was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis, in which abnormal antibodies attack healthy tissues. In Jordan’s case, the blood vessels of his kidneys were targeted, leading to increased kidney failure. However, Jordan kept on playing and pushed himself to go to the Wake Forest campus in Winston-Salem, N.C. last August.

“Just showing up on our campus was a more courageous act than anything I’m doing,” Walter said. “Now Kevin and I are forever going to be joined at the hip, so to speak,” he added according to USA Today. When Jordan got to campus, his health began deteriorating. He had lost 30 pounds, was taking 35 pills a day, and was hooked up to dialysis machines in his room for most of the day and night. He took classes and went to practice in between.

When his kidney function decreased to 8 percent, doctors announced that Jordan would need a kidney transplant. His family members were all tested but to no avail. Most kidney transplant candidates wait for years and do not get a kidney. Walter then decided to test himself when he realized that he and Jordan had the same blood type. After undergoing tests in January, and was found to be a match, he was elated. The successful surgery took place on Monday, and both Jordan and Walter are expected to make full recoveries and make it back to the field in a few weeks, according to ESPN.