Facebook Miracle: How to get a Kidney Donation in 20 Minutes Flat!

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Facebook and social media truly can change lives!

Anyone who’s ever been on an organ donation list knows how disheartening it is, and how long it can take to find a donor who matches all the criteria necessary for a successful organ transfer.

If you, or someone you love is on a waiting list, for a kidney donation, or another organ – you might want to give Facebook a try. It worked for Phyllis Frederick of Warren County, Ohio.

Frederick has been under medical care for her failing Kidneys since 1998, and in 2007 her doctor informed her that her medical treatments were no longer working. She was informed that she would have to go on Dialysis. She was told that she’d be put on the waiting list, but that she should try to find a donor on her own. From that point her family and friends tried to reach out and find someone willing to donate their kidney.

At 71, Frederick made another trip to her doctor, and was resigned to living on Dialysis, figuring that she was getting too old to even take an organ transplant. She said a prayer before entering the office, hoping that there was something that would miraculously save her. Frederick inquired about whether her age would be a limiting factor on her receiving a kidney. The doctor informed her that he has performed transplants on patients as old as 82 and have been successful. Giving her hope that the clock hasn’t completely run down.

Still fretting over how she would receive a kidney donation, Frederick’s daughter Carrie posted a call for help on her Facebook page. It wasn’t 20 minutes later till before she had a life-saving response. The original message simply stated: “My mom’s Type O. She needs a kidney, can anybody help?

Twenty minutes later a Warren County resident volunteered. Kirsten Montgomery was already connected to Frederick, as her daughter’s best friend from high school, after being out of contact for many years. The 34-year-old Deerfield Township mother of two, could relate having had a brother saved by a bone-marrow transplant. She called her husband, and gave him the details, and he said “If we can help somebody, we should”, to which she responded “That’s all the permission I need.”

Frederick wasn’t even home from the doctor’s before getting the call from her daughter. When an astonished Frederick questioned the kindness of her daughter’s friend, the daughter said that she had remembered Frederick’s kindness during visits to their home, when they were in highschool.

Her daughter Carrie, and her friend Kirsten both have birthday’s a day apart. Frederick had made them both a cake, and Kirsten remembered the kindness showed, and returned that kindness back.

The surgery took place on February 9th, and Frederick is doing much better. Her energy levels are up, and her blood pressure is lower than it’s been in decades.

You can say that Facebook is just a fad, or just a site that kids play games on. You can laugh or ignore the social networking giant. You can even overlook the fact that Facebook beat Google for traffic, a few weeks back. It’s things like this though that really touch your heart, and make you realize that there’s a lot of good that you can do via social media. This isn’t an isolated event, there have been many many cases of using social media for good.

What are some of your favorite stories about using social media for good?

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• Hundreds of Donor Kidneys Tossed Away Each Year (nlm.nih.gov)
• Man Donates Kidney To Cahsier (chicagoist.com)

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