Pittsburgh Woman Gifts Kidney To A Stranger, And Helps Save Six Lives: 'Angel On Earth' (Exclusive)

• When the kidney Erin Wheeler (donated by her father when she was 10), she began to collapse, mother Julia Calano wanted to donate – but she was not a good match
• This launched the organ donation chain: the stranger, Eve Alden, donated the kidney to wheeler, allowing Catalano to donate her kidney stranger. Since then six people received transplantation
• Wheels “will” always be part of my family, “Alden tells people

After donating part of the liver to a friend in June 2023, Eva Alden wanted to give more.

On a one -year transplant after a transplant, Alden asked if he could be tested as a kidney provider. Thirteen days later, she donated a kidney to the stranger – and launched a chain of renal replacement, which has since been used by six people.

“I always want to help people,” says Alden, 41, who is employed at the Pittsburgh dental office doing administrative work and marketing.

The transplant happened on August 6, 2024. At one week after the OP, doctors asked Alden if she wanted to meet her kidney recipient. “He dies to meet you,” the surgeon told her.

Alden said he was also familiar with Erin Wheeler.

“They were immediate tears and hugs,” Alden recalls. “Erina’s dad hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for saving my baby. ”

(To the left 🙂 Erin Wheeler, her aunt Diane Striegel, her mother Julia Calano and father Jim Wheeler.

Julia Katalano

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Wheeler’s father, James Wheeler, a 70-year-old retired police officer, actually gave his daughter one of the kidneys in February 1990.

When she was 5, Erin was diagnosed with innate abnormality that causes reflux in her kidneys. At the age of 10, she needed a kidney transplant, and her parents (who divorced), they both volunteered. “My father was unwavering,” Wheeler recalls, a 45-year-old older career advisor at Pittsburgh University. “Really, he really wanted to donate.”

In December 2023, Wheeler was said to have given her a father to fail and that she would need another kidney transplant.

“I broke out in tears,” she says. “I thought I was invincible. It all went so great for so long. I thought,” I will just continue to be an anomaly and I will just continue to be this warrior. “It was shocking.”

Her mother Julia Catalano, a 70-year-old nurse, volunteered immediately to donate her kidney.

Erin Wheeler with her mother Julia Catalano.

Julia Katalano

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And while Catalano proved to be a match for his daughter – she is a blood type O, a universal donor – doctors wanted wheeler to have a younger kidney that would last longer. Therefore, they suggested the replacement of the kidney – where Calano would donate to another waiting recipient, and Alden would give her a kidney wheeler.

“That was a little difficult for us at first, maybe I a little more – because you want it directly,” admits Catalano, whose kidney approached the stranger who was closer to her at the age; While Alden is – who – who – who proved the perfect match – donated to wheeler.

Both operations were performed on the same day at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, August 6th. Catalano and Wheeler signed up to the hospital together; Catalano first entered the surgery. They said goodbye, they cried. “Then I waited,” Wheeler says.

All operations have been in line.

“Everything was perfect everywhere,” says surgeon Dr. Amit Tevar, 50, surgical director of the renal transplant program and pancreas on UPMC.

Dr. Amit D. Tevar performed surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.

Upmc

The “open chain” began, says Tevar, which means that when Alden managed to replace Catalano as wheeler’s donor, who left Catalano available to donate another recipient; And their donor in return donated to someone else, and so on.

“Eva is perhaps the mostifters -centered, altruistic human being I have ever met in my life,” adds Tevar. “So far, we have made six transplants in this open chain, all because of one very, very special donor.”

A week after surgery, Alden examined her when Tevar asked her if she wanted to meet a woman who got her kidney.

“Eva did it just out of the goodness of her heart,” Wheeler says. “It was really special and really very selfless. We say Eva is like this angel on earth. She’s just amazing.”

A week after surgery, Erin Wheeler (right) and her mother Julia Catalano managed to embark on a ship on Lake Conneaut in Penn.

Julia Katalano

The organ donor becomes the best friend with Stranger, who received his kidney: ‘The most believing trip’

Alden returned to work a week after her Laparoscopic Donation of Kidney, and in October she ran a half marathon. And while she can no longer donate another organ (blood and plasma only), she shares her story to help educate and encourage others to become a living donor.

She and Wheeler also became friends on social networks. They text – and they talked about the gathering for coffee.

“She and her family, I feel, will always be part of my family,” Alden says. “I’m sure you would say the same.”

Click here more about the transplant transplant services at the Pittsburgh University – or here for a comprehensive information about their organs transplant program.

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Source: HIS Education