A match made in friendship: receiving a life-saving donation
NEW HANOVER COUNTY (WWAY) — What to do the night before a life-saving surgery?
Put together a puzzle and watch a little tv together.
“You’re getting a kidney tomorrow. I can’t wait.”
Stephanie Daniels, on the left, and her friend Sydney Mathis, on the right, from Castle Hayne, have been friends for a long time.
After years of struggling with Polycystic Kidney Disease, losing both kidneys, and a multitude of dialysis treatments, 28-year-old Sydney was in need of a living donor kidney transplant, and waited on the transplant list for 5 years.
42-year-old Stephanie decided to take a blood test and discovered she was a match for Sydney, ultimately deciding to donate one of her kidneys.
“…and I’m like, just knowing that this was the right thing to do,” said Daniels.
Sydney and Stephanie’s surgeries were scheduled for Wednesday and they walked into Atrium Health in Charlotte arm-in-arm.
Sydney was in utter disbelief.
“I would just say, like, just unimaginable was the feeling,” said Mathis.
On Wednesday morning, across the way from each other at Atrium Health, Stephanie and Sydney were prepped for the surgery.
Sydney is one of the lucky ones, to receive a kidney from someone she knows.
But nephrologist John Havill says that most donor transplants don’t happen this way.
“The way to do it is an altruistic donor, someone who just wants to give a kidney to the list comes in, donates a kidney to the list, and so they, let’s say, gives the kidney to me, because they’re a great match. Then, the person who is going to donate to me, it’s then upon them to give them, to give their kidney to the next person in the chain, and so on, and so these chains develop. It’s an excellent way of doing it. They get a perfect match, which means their immunosuppressive therapy is low, for the duration of the live of the kidney transplant, and these transplants can last a long time, and so we do encourage anyone who does need a kidney to ask anyone to donate who can donate,” said Havill.
After years of waiting, Sydney is finally receiving her kidney from the best friend she could have asked for.
