I donated just over 11 years ago, on June 25, 2003 to my oldest brother. In order to donate, I spent just over a year losing 110 pounds to achieve the weight the surgeon said I needed to be at. It was the skinniest I have ever been in my adult life!
At the time of the donation, I was the mother of a little boy born after five years of fertility treatments with three different doctors. The way I rocked my one kidney happened just under two years later. I found out in May 2005 that I was pregnant naturally (and from “just one time”) and gave birth to a healthy baby girl in December. She is a miracle in so many ways: a tremendous gift after 15 years of infertility, the first girl born in my husband’s family in over 112 years, and she shares a birthday with my kidney-recipient brother having decided to arrive 11 days early! My joke to the transplant surgeon was that he should have charged double for the surgery since we got two great things out of it, a healthy brother and a wonderful daughter.
Just last week, my brother died of apparent sudden cardiac death, entirely unrelated to the kidney transplant. Knowing that I gave him those extra years of life and knowing he gave me my little girl will allow me to keep rocking my one kidney even through my grief process and on for the rest of my life.
— Susan Bentjen
What an amazing story! Such sisterly love! We are so sorry for your loss. But how special that your love for him helped you get your miracle daughter!