One of Brooklyn’s most famous pizzerias prepared a miracle for a customer in need.
When Mark Iacono, owner of the Lucali wood-fired pizza establishment in Carroll Gardens, learned that his patron and friend Theo Alano, 54, was suffering from end-stage kidney disease, he was devastated.
Desperate to help in some way, Iacono shared a post with his 245,000 Instagram followers in December 2023, writing that Alano, a creative director, was looking for a kidney donor.
In May 2022, Alan contracted a severe case of COVID-19 on a flight home from Ireland to New York City.
At the time, 52 years old, he had previously been healthy, but quickly went downhill, near death.
Doctors discovered he had end-stage kidney disease and would need to start dialysis.
But before he could do that, his health quickly deteriorated. In early 2023, two friends rushed him to the emergency room after he became bedridden and frail and his skin turned yellow.
Doctors at Lenox Hill Hospital said he was in kidney failure.
“It was Ash Wednesday and the nurse pulled my friends aside and said, ‘your friend probably has an hour to live,'” Alano recalled.
He survived, thanks to dialysis — a treatment that removes fluid and waste from the blood — and began regular sessions at the Lower Manhattan Dialysis Center in Greenwich Village.
The treatment was exhausting.
Three mornings a week, he woke up at 3:30 a.m. for four-hour sessions.
A kidney donation was his best long-term hope, but there was a 10-year waiting list for a donor through the New York State Living Donation Registry.
He began praying for a miracle — and shared a prayer for a potential live donor with his 1,659 Instagram followers.
“If I’ve ever impacted your life or if someone has changed your life in some way – I challenge you to pay it forward and consider donating a kidney to me,” Alano wrote in the post.
He even got stars like Jessica Alba, who he met through a mutual friend, to repost his plea.
But it was boyfriend Picaiolo Iacono whose call to action helped save his life.
Upper West Sider Rusty Rastello, 42, a longtime Lucali fan, happened to see Iacono’s post.
It resonated deeply with Rastello, a professor at the Culinary Institute of America and a sommelier who previously worked at Eleven Madison Park and Gramercy Tavern.
His uncle, a father figure to him, had donated a kidney to his brother 32 years ago. He began researching kidney transplant procedures and landed on Alano.
“I saw the post and it triggered a memory,” Rastello said.
In December 2023, the pair met over coffee in Hell’s Kitchen and instantly connected.
I felt as if I had known him for years,” Alano recalls.
Rastello underwent a series of blood and urine tests and, in May 2024, was found to be a perfect match for Alano.
He also had to undergo a standard physical and chest x-ray to make sure he was healthy enough to be a living donor.
On August 7, 2024, both men checked into Columbia Milstein Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights.
Rastello’s surgery — a minimally invasive procedure that required only a few small incisions in the abdomen — took just three hours. Alano’s most complicated operation lasted six.
Rastello recalled being thrilled when his fiancé told him his kidney had been successfully transplanted into Iacono.
“I just started crying. I still don’t know what that emotion was – it was somewhere between relief and excitement,” he said, holding back tears. “We had become friends at this point and it was a huge amount of gratitude that we both made it through. When I saw him – light had come to his eyes, color to his face. It was remarkable how quickly he recovered.”
Rastello went home after two nights in the hospital, Iacono stayed for four nights.
Two months after their life-saving transplant surgery, both Rastello and Alano say they’re feeling great.
Last month, the pair celebrated their incredible journey and newfound friendship over a wood-fired pie in Lucali.
“He did something so selfless,” Alano said. “I don’t know how I was so lucky.”
For more information about living kidney donation, visit the National Kidney Foundation website at Kidney.org.
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Image Source : nypost.com