Advertisement

19-year-old daughter ‘proud to give my mom my kidney’

A mother-daughter duo from Rockville, Maryland, had much to celebrate this Mother's Day.

This February, 19-year-old Kelly Sia donated a kidney to 45-year-old Mindy Lam. They have now both fully recovered.

"It was such a perfect day — right after Valentine’s Day — and I was so excited and proud to give my mom my kidney," recalled Sia.

"I feel incredibly blessed and happy to have someone who loves me so much," Lam, a jewelry designer, told Healthline. "My angel daughter has given me back my health."

Lam had been diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease three years ago was in dire need of a transplant. Sia wanted to give her one immediately — but the then-16-year-old was told she would have to wait until she was old enough.

When she turned 18, she volunteered again:

"I told my mom that she’d given me life, and I wanted to help her, but it took a while to get her to agree," said the college student, who turned out to be a match.

The three-hour surgery went well, as did the recovery.

"I pretty much can go back to normal life," Lam told the Gazette. "I don't have to worry (about) when I have to do my dialysis and rush home to do that."

"I want people to know, no matter how (bad) they are, how sick they are, we can walk through this with the people who love us. We have to be strong and fight," she said. "We might miss three years of Mother’s Days and birthdays, but we have much more to go."

Two years ago, Kirti Dwivedi used Facebook and Twitter to help find a kidney for her mother.

Earlier this year, a woman was given a new kidney thanks to a serendipitous friendship formed through a Facebook game.

And this spring, a kindergarten teacher offered a kidney to a former student.