A Dallas-area man is successfully recovering after receiving a donated kidney from his wife’s co-worker. This example of selfless generosity is inspiring and heartwarming!
Ana Rodriguez has worked as the office administrator at the Riordan Medical Institute (RMI) in Southlake, TX since 2016. During that time, her husband (Marco Rodriquez) has been on a kidney transplant waitlist. As Marco’s condition began to worsen, Ana made an appeal to family, friends, and co-workers to participate in a crossmatch test to determine if they could be a potential donor.
Ana and Marco were overwhelmed by the number of people who volunteered to test for a match. While the odds of being an exact match are very low, one co-worker of Ana’s at RMI was a 100% match. That is an especially uncommon occurrence. Amy Stevens, who is a nurse at RMI, quickly agreed to donate a kidney to Marco.
The transplant surgery has occurred and both donor and recipient are doing very well. In fact, Amy has returned to work and Marco has recovered to the point where his physician has allowed him to drive his car. The plan is for Marco to return to his job next week.
In addition to Amy’s amazing gift of life to Marco, many others within RMI stepped up to support their co-workers during the recovery process. From prepared meals to covering responsibilities at work, teammates found ways to do their part in support of both families.
RMI utilizes bone marrow-derived stem cells with state-of-the-art orthopedic interventions to postpone or eliminate the need for surgery. While it is the mission of RMI and its employees to ease human suffering through medical innovation, this is an extraordinary story of kindness from one person to another.