“The gift of life” is a bold statement, but it matches the tenor of an event held Tuesday where 11 children who have received kidney transplants were able to meet donors or their families at Rady Children’s Hospital and ring the traditional “transplant bell.”
In conjunction with April being National Donate Life Month, Rady brought back 11 recipients of kidneys in 2024 to celebrate with families and medical teams. Several living donors were also on hand to see what their gift had given.
Tiffany Minor, a special education teacher at Crowne Hill Elementary in the Temecula Valley School District, was one of these. She donated her kidney to James, an 8-year-old student at the school.
“I noticed him sitting on a beanbag, not really doing much. I said as much to his dad and he told me he was really struggling. He was in dialysis,” she said. “So I asked what I could do to look into becoming a donor and started on the path.”
Starting in October 2023, she began visiting websites and calling to see if she could donate to James, and eventually connected with Rady. On Valentine’s Day 2024, Minor was told she was a match. She and James were in surgery two weeks later, March 1.
“To see him transform from a sick little boy to a happy, healthy one … It’s been a blessing,” Minor said. “God had his hand on this, the odds to be a match are pretty low.
“Donation in general is a blessing. It’s a blessing to [the recipients] so they can live healthy lives, but it’s also a blessing to you. It’s a gift,” she added.
Dr. Elizabeth Ingulli, a transplant nephrologist medical director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Rady, said anyone who makes the decision to be an organ donor can save lives.
“We have living donors here who gave the gift of life,” she said. “But we also have the families of deceased donors who have done an amazing thing and given their loved one’s organs to people who needed them. This is such a happy event, each and every one of the kids are just ecstatic. Being in dialysis is not fun for a child and so they are just so grateful.”
Ingulli said some of the donors didn’t even know the recipient personally, but behaved altruistically because they could. She encouraged anyone who is able to sign up as an organ donor.
National Donate Life Month is observed to “help raise awareness about donation and encourage Americans to register as organ and tissues donors, and to honor those that have helped saved lives through the gift of donation,” according to Rady.
According to OrganDonor.gov, there are more than 170 million registered organ donors in the United States. However, not everyone who has elected to become a donor is able to donate. Only around three in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for deceased organ donation.
There are more than 100,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list, nearly 90,000 for kidneys. Seventeen people die each day waiting for an organ transplant. More than 48,000 transplants were performed in 2024.
Interested individuals can sign up to be an organ donor here.
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