A few years ago,Brandi Thornton donated one of her kidneys to a stranger. Now she’s getting ready to donate a portion of her liver to a baby she’s never met, but matched with on the organ donor registry. That second organ donation will make her one of only a handful of people in the U.S. known as a “double donor.”
The mom of two from Colorado says she was inspired to become a living organ donor after a little girl she babysat died while waiting for a lung transplant. She donated her kidney to a man in Ohio she didn’t know, but has met since, and she says she felt like she still wanted to do more after that surgery. And she’ll get her chance this week when she donates a portion of her liver to a sick little boy.
Brandi admits she worries about the risks and the surgery, but she’s willing to do it to save lives. “People would ask me, ‘what if your girls need a kidney? What if something happens?’” she says. “And my thought is always, what if it doesn’t?”