The Hartford Hospital living kidney donation team, including Kari Rancourt (back row, right), helped get Cliff O'Connell a new kidney. O'Connell and Rancourt spoke to Connecticut Public Radio about the transplant to mark a new national living donor day. Chris Rakoczy / Hartford Hospital Cliff O’Connell’s future was once pretty murky. By 2019, he’d had kidney disease for 14 years. “‘Am I going to be on dialysis? Am I going to have to stop working?’ Because I work 70 to 80 hours a week, and I couldn’t picture just sitting around,” O’Connell said. He needed a transplant. For anyone who needs a new kidney, Kari Rancourt says, avoiding dialysis is crucial.