CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Caroline Magoto has been overcoming obstacles since the day she was born, and a stranger-turned-family friend helped her clear one of the biggest obstacles this year with a life-saving kidney donation.
Magoto spent her first six months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Cincinnati Children’s, where doctors discovered kidney problems that her mother, Lisa, always knew would one day require a transplant.
Caroline Magoto has been overcoming obstacles since the day she was born, and a stranger-turned-family friend, Morgan Schweinfurth, helped her clear one of the biggest this year with a life-saving kidney donation. (WKRC, provided)
“It’s pretty shocking and scary because you don’t know how it’s going to work out, and, you know, there has to be a donor,” Lisa said.
That donor turned out to be someone who may have cared for Magoto as a baby.
Sixteen years ago, Morgan Schweinfurth was a brand-new nurse in the newborn ICU at Children’s main campus, caring for some of the hospital’s tiniest patients.
“It was an amazing time in my life for sure,” Schweinfurth said. “I learned so much from those families — how to love everything about that time, even if it’s the good, the bad and the ugly, and everything in between.”
Schweinfurth’s grandfather received a life-saving organ donation, and she said the idea of paying it forward had always been in the back of her mind. Then, she began noticing appeals for organ donors on billboards and social media.
Caroline Magoto has been overcoming obstacles since the day she was born, and a stranger-turned-family friend,{ }Morgan Schweinfurth,{ }helped her clear one of the biggest this year with a life-saving kidney donation. (WKRC, provided)
“You’re just thinking, ‘What if that was my child, my parent, my cousin, my best friend,'” said Schweinfurth.
When Schweinfurth saw a Facebook post about Magoto and the family’s search for a kidney donor, something clicked. Magoto’s blood type is A — and so is Schweinfurth’s.
“It was just this moment of, I got chills,” Schweinfurth said. “I was like, this is it, and from then on, it just steamrolled.”
Testing showed she was a perfect match. In March, Schweinfurth and Magoto went into surgery for the transplant, which doctors said was a complete success.
“It was beautiful,” Lisa said. “It just, again, cemented in my heart everything was good and perfect.”
Caroline Magoto has been overcoming obstacles since the day she was born, and a stranger-turned-family friend,{ }Morgan Schweinfurth,{ }helped her clear one of the biggest this year with a life-saving kidney donation. (WKRC, provided)
For Magoto, it was another hurdle cleared. For Schweinfurth and Lisa, it marked the start of what both describe as a lifelong bond.
“It’s pretty amazing that you can make a connection, and now a lifelong connection, with a family from a different place and a different background,” Schweinfurth said. “Now, she’s part of our family and part of our life. It’s one of those stories that’s felt like kismet from the beginning to the end.”
Lisa said her daughter, who has Down syndrome, has not always been seen by others the way her family sees her.
“The fact that Caroline does have Down syndrome, it worried us that not everyone would see her as we do,” Lisa said. “The fact that Morgan didn’t even blink and just gave that gift so freely — she is an amazing, amazing person.”
