The reality of organ donation is that patients in need often end up waiting a very long time for that life-changing gift in Metro Detroit.
But sometimes luck intervenes as a chance encounter leads to a donated kidney and a sisterhood.
“I was hoping and praying to get a living donor because I didn’t want someone to have to die in order to make me live,” said kidney recipient Tuesday Reis.
Reis described the moment everything changed for her.
“God put us all together at the same time,” Reis said.
The living donor she prayed for showed up at her door for a project that turned into so much more.
“It was a blessing for me to do it for her,” said living kidney donor Gail Hampton.
Reis calls Hampton her “Angel on Earth” as the two strangers share the same blood type.
“The next person that would come along, whoever that was, I would do it,” Hampton said.
Reis opened up about her kidney failure, not knowing that Hampton had once tried to donate a kidney to a fellow church member, but it didn’t work out.
“It’s a kidney that’s generally better than any deceased donor they could’ve found,” said Corewell Health Dr. Krishna Putchakayala. “It works right away, and it lasts the longest.”
Putchakayala performed part of the surgery. He said he was inspired by the unique circumstances that led them together and wants others to know how much of an impact living donors can make.
“I saved her life, and that meant something to me,” Hampton said.
“To all my kidney warriors out there, your day will come, and it will be the best day of your life,” Reis said.
As of Tuesday (April 23), there are about 90,000 people nationwide who are waiting on a kidney transplant.
From Reis and Hampton’s perspective, getting a new kidney was monumental, and they both hoped others would consider giving the gift of life.
Reis said she could travel again as she had just returned from visiting her new grandbaby in Colorado.
She says she has so much more planned as she lives with so much gratitude.