“My phone rang. ‘You’re a match!’ I stopped breathing for a brief moment. My BMI was still too high to donate. I tipped the scales at 297 pounds. The surgeon told me, ‘You need to lose more weight.’ I’d been searching for my ‘why’ for months. She needed me, and I needed her. Someone else’s life was now in my hands. I was called to save her.”
‘I stumbled upon a Facebook post from a former high school classmate. ‘I’m in Stage 4 Kidney Failure.’ A voice in the back of my mind screamed, ‘It’s you…’: Woman loses 150 pounds to donate kidney, liver, ‘Our lives are forever changed’
‘I remember the anesthesiologist asking me, as he was administering the epidural, if I was nervous about the surgery. I hesitated, and responded, ‘Only for her.’
“I pleaded with her pediatricians to investigate further. I hung up the phone and immediately collapsed to the floor, crying uncontrollably.”
‘I can’t! I can’t!’, it hurt so much in my chest at that moment I couldn’t say anything else. We were relieved our little girl’s suffering was about to end, just not the way we had hoped.’
“We were told she would be okay. We were told she was strong. We were led to believe she wouldn’t need to be hospitalized. After being intubated, her father was showering, and I heard what sounded like crackling.”
