A woman went from donning a wedding dress to putting on a hospital gown to donate a kidney to her husband's ex-wife, according to the Associated Press (AP) via KING 5.
Debby Neal-Strickland stepped up and offered her kidney to Jim Strickland's former wife Mylaen Merthe just days after her wedding in Florida.
Merthe has been struggling with kidney disease for a long time and was eventually admitted to a hospital back in November. Reporters learned Merthe's kidneys were only functioning at 8%. When her brother offered his kidney and wasn't a match, that's when Neal-Strickland volunteered.
The newlywed said she knew Merthe was going to become a grandmother soon. She thought of Merthe's daughter giving birth, “and her mom not being there. I just couldn’t not try to change that,” she said. “God told me, ‘You’re a match and you need to do this.'"
The date of the transplant was set two days after Debby and Jim's wedding, and the wife was close to postponing it. Her friends discouraged her to do so, especially since the couple has been waiting 10 years to tie the knot. They finally wed on November 22, 2020, and just days later, the kidney transplant happened -- and it was a success.
“It was the most amazing day of my life, until two days later. That was also the most amazing day of my life,” Neal-Strickland said, adding that Merthe looked "so alive and revitalized" after the transplant.
"We’re crying, and of course our stomachs were hurting because of the incisions,” Mylaen said. “We kinda laughed and cried.”
The women now call themselves kidney sisters, and a big family trip to Lake Rabun, Georgia is planned for this summer.
“This is what the world is about. Family. We need to stick together,” Merthe said. “She saved my life.”
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Photo: Getty Images