As a high school student, Jeremy Peterson knew his future was Painful dialysis sessionsextreme weight loss, and on the brink of death while waiting for a kidney donor.
However, he didn't know that 25 years later, it would be one of his classmates who would come to his rescue.
The 42-year-old federal prison officer said Kou Three years later 10 hours of dialysis treatment every dayHis health was not improving, and when he asked his doctor what would happen if he stopped seeing him, he told reporters, the doctor replied: “You only have two months to live. Take care of yourself.”
Peterson said he had no choice but to explore the only option left. Join the long waiting list for a kidney transplant. According to American Kidney Foundation, Most Americans wait three to five years to find a donor, and Peterson said he didn't know how much time he had left: He weighed 315 pounds at the time, and his kidney function had dropped to 2 percent.
In desperation, Peterson took to social media. They are pleading for help in finding a donor. Unbeknownst to him, the post had accidentally hit the algorithm for a white woman named Angelina Attaway, whom he hadn't seen in over 20 years.
Attaway said: Kou She recognized Peterson. As high school classmates from Brantstown, Florida. She said she contacted Medical City Dallas anonymously because she was interested in donating a kidney. She arranged the procedureBy pure coincidence, or some might call it divine timing, she ran into Peterson in the hospital lobby the day before her surgery.
“I was like, 'What are you doing in Dallas?'” Peterson said. KouAttaway said she told him she owned his kidney.
“Time stopped, and when they told me she was my donor, time really did stop,” Peterson told reporters.
Dr. Tiffany Anthony said the surgery went smoothly because Peterson was able to find a living donor. KHOU reportsAnother reason, of course, is the fact that there are not many cases of white people donating their organs to black people. 2022 Report A study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that black people are three times more likely to suffer from kidney failure. The wait for a donor becomes longer and the chances of receiving a transplant become even lower.
Given the documented differences, Peterson's story offers hope: Reports say he's responding well to his new organ, and that Attaway checks in on him from time to time. Now the two have not only reconnected on social media; they share a part of each other.
“In a way, we've become a family. We share an body part, so we're always saying, 'How are your kidneys?'” Attaway said. Kou.
