NEW HAVEN, Ind. — An Indiana man who needed a kidney transplant found the perfect donor right by his side.
Three years ago, Mike Reed began losing energy. In November 2021, tests revealed he was in stage 4 kidney failure.
“I almost went through like a mourning period for the next month or so and thinking, like, ‘This is the end,'” his wife, Paige told NBC affiliate WPTA.
Reed started dialysis immediately and was put on a wait list for a transplant. But as he waited, his body was deteriorating.
“To mow the yard was a struggle,” Mike said.
A year after his diagnosis, doctors found a match — the woman to whom he'd been married for nearly a decade.
“It’s still like unreal that it worked and there hasn’t been any kind of complications to speak of,” Mike said.
Dr. Islam Ghoneim, at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital, said most people wait about four years to get a match, and the fact that Paige was that person was rare.
But the doctor said Mike's case was special.
“Sometimes a match, even an organ match, may be something that’s made in heaven, and in this case, it truly was,” Ghoneim said.
The Reeds say their story shows how life-saving organ donations can be.
“Sometimes people just donate, and they don’t know,” Paige said. “I think for me as the donor, it’s been amazing because from day one, I can see just the impact it’s made on his life.”
For more information on becoming an organ donor, click here.