Helping save lives is a passion for Beloit Fire Department Capt. Mike Rosario, but he was in jeopardy of having to give up that dream as he battled chronic kidney disease.
That's when his brother and fellow firefighters stepped up to help him receive a transplant. And now he's becoming a statewide advocate for others, in coordination with a University of Wisconsin Health system program.
Rosario, or Rosie as he's known around the department, received a kidney from his younger brother Steve in April of 2008, and was back at the fire station less than three months after the surgery. But his support system didn't stop there.
After a complication with his first dialysis treatment leading up to the transplant, he couldn't drive for six months so Beloit fire staff stepped up to drive him from Pardeeville, where he was living at the time, to Beloit for treatment.