‘She Saved Their Daddy’: Woman Donates Kidney To Stranger, Saving His Life

CHICAGO (CBS) — How often bash you announcement flyers connected bulletin boards, oregon decals connected a passing car? The reply mightiness conscionable mean the quality betwixt beingness and death. And it did for 2 full strangers successful Chicago who are present connected by a peculiar acquisition of a donated kidney.

They lone met 2 months ago, but the enslaved betwixt Lisa Segura and Julian Ortiz is much than conscionable tegument heavy – to accidental the least. “She’s impacted the beingness of our children,” Ortiz’s wife, Claribel, told WBBM-TV. “They spot her arsenic a hero. She saved their daddy.”

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Julian Ortiz has battled an autoimmune illness for astir of his life. Glomerulonephritis began attacking his assemblage until the begetter of 4 could hardly move. “It got atrocious capable that I couldn’t adjacent get disconnected the bed, my legs were truthful swollen,” helium said.

Two years ago, doctors told Ortiz helium needed a kidney if helium wanted to survive.

“There were days that we mislaid hope,” said Claribel Ortiz. “I enactment a motion connected our conveyance that says ‘our daddy needs a kidney. We did videos. We did flyers.”

Segura saw 1 of those flyers astatine the Midway Baseball Association – the aforesaid spot they some manager – but they’d ne'er met. “I took a representation of it and I conscionable applied,” she said. “I thought, what the heck? Why not.”

And arsenic destiny would person it, she was a match. “It was the champion telephone of our lives,” said Claribel Ortiz.

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“I conscionable started crying,” Segura said.

For Segura, giving up an organ was a no-brainer. “It was a beauteous casual decision. I knew if I had a spare, I lone needed 1 to live,” Segura said. “I can’t ideate my kids surviving without me, and I don’t privation that for his kids oregon his family.”

The kidney transplant was 2 weeks ago. But for Ortiz and Segura, the representation of seeing each different for the archetypal clip since country volition past them a lifetime. “I was like, ‘Wow, there’s a portion of maine virtually successful his assemblage now,’” Segura said.

“It was a surreal moment,” said Ortiz. “She practically gave maine different accidental astatine beingness – not lone for myself, but for my kids and my wife. There’s thing I tin bash to wage her backmost for that.”

Nearly 100,000 radical astir the state are waiting, conscionable similar Julian Ortiz was, for their ain match. If you’d similar to larn much astir organ donations and prevention a beingness similar Segura, you tin larn much astatine the links below.

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• Organ Donor Registry
• National Kidney Foundation
• Kidney Transplant Waitlist