LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One southern Indiana woman gave a life-saving kidney donation to someone she's never even bet.
And on Thursday, they were both celebrated with a living donor honor walk.
After a successful surgery, the kidney donor, Alyssa Grimes, was discharged from the hospital with a major celebration. Hospital staff lined the walls, cheering and celebrating.
Grimes said she decided to give her kidney to this woman she's never even met before because she kept seeing yard signs about the woman, and took it as a sign to help out.
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"There's been a sign up in my hometown in New Albany for a while, and then I didn't see it, and then over the summer, I saw a really big sign and I realized 'oh this person still needs a kidney,'" she said. "And I took a picture of it, kept thinking about it, and I decided to call one day on my break at work. I was like 'oh I'm just going to call. And I'm going to do it if I can.'"
And the best part, the two aren't strangers anymore. They met for the first time ever Wednesday night while the kidney recipient, Kayla Doty, was recovering from surgery.
Kayla's mother, Roxanna, said her daughter's health fight has been one of strength and courage, adding it's hard to describe how forever grateful she is for the former stranger who gave her child a kidney.
"I'm in shock and awe," she said. "A gift like that you don't expect, and not very many people would do it."
"That's been in my head and my heart from the beginning, that I'm not really sacrificing that much in the long run, for something that will actually help someone stay alive," Grimes said.
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