The gift of life from one mom to another
This pandemic year has a silver lining. Strangers have become friends and life-saving stars have aligned. Just ask Jennifer Weaver, a Boulder Valley School District elementary special education teacher.
“It was June 4. I will literally never forget that date for my entire life. I was on summer vacation from teaching,” Weaver recalled. “I was just scanning through Facebook and I saw the post. It was immediate.”
It was a post asking for a kidney donation for a woman named Shyamlee Pringle -- a woman Weaver had never met.
Weaver said that within 20 minutes of finding the post, Kidney for Shyamlee, she’d completed the initial online health questionnaire and had told her husband of 18 years her plan.
“She told me that she read this post about this mom who has a husband and a daughter and that she wanted to see if (she could) help because they deserve to have a normal life,” Justin Weaver said. “That’s who my wife is.”
Extensive testing and counseling would follow. Through the process, Jennifer Weaver’s decision to donate a kidney never wavered. She said waiting was the hardest part.
A couple of months later, the news came: There’d still be more testing, but she was a match for Pringle.
She says her heart wanted to connect.
“Everybody always says, ‘Don’t expect anything out of a donor/recipient relationship’,” Jennifer said. She sent a text anyway.
Hope for a Boulder mom
“I took a screenshot and started sending to my family. ‘Guess what I just received?!’ I couldn’t talk; I was too choked up,” 37-year-old Pringle recalled.
For the past two years, she’d been living with end-stage renal disease. Kidney damage had been the result of preeclampsia during pregnancy and was rapidly advancing. Hours were spent each week on dialysis and her energy levels were dropping.
Each day for the Pringle family was getting more difficult. Six-year-old Asha was brave but craved a normal life with her mom.
Pringle hoped a kidney transplant would bring new life, but she knew it would be a long shot. Her medical team added her to the wait list in three states. “In Colorado the wait is 4-5 years,” she said.
Living donation was the option that brought new hope.
“I wanted to donate, but they said I was too old,” said her father, Yogesh Vaidya, while reliving some of his family’s recent experiences. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his wife were unable to leave their home in India to travel to Colorado to help their daughter, making life even more difficult.
More family members offered to donate. All were ruled out. The process is very stringent.
Friends and Facebook take it from there
“When they ruled out Ari (Shyamlee Pringle's husband), we got nervous,” said Haddy Jow, one of Pringle's best friends. So Jow got busy with friends from a social networking group.
Mary Meek designed the Facebook page. Another friend took the photos. Everyone else shared the message.
“I literally sat in my bed and shared it with 30-35 pages that I’m on. The one thing I kept telling Shyamlee was that I just need one person. Just the right person who was the match or knows the match,” said Jow.
“It's the one thing I wished for on New Year’s Eve. It’s the one thing I wished for on my birthday in March,” she continued while fighting back tears of joy and relief.
On October 12, that wish came true.
Jennifer Weaver donated a kidney. A successful transplant at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, brought renewed health to Pringle. It was also the beginning of a friendship that spans the globe, joining families and hearts.
For the two-month transplant anniversary, a celebration was organized -- pandemic style, on Zoom. Pringle's parents in Dehli, India, joined as well as family and friends across the U.S. They all got to meet Jennifer Weaver and her family.
'Jennifer is a godsend'
Through tears of joy and thanks, those who took part expressed gratitude for a gift that had brought renewed life.
“I always think that Jennifer is a godsend in our lives. She’s like a second daughter,” said Pringle's mother, Ritu, during the tearful virtual call.
Her father told Weaver: “Very few people in the world can do what you have done for our daughter. Any amount of thank you is not enough."
“You changed the lives of so many people because of your generosity," added Ashish Vaidya, Pringle's brother. "Think about it. In this day and age of complete craziness happening around the world with everything, this is a true testament that good people exist and that there is a live angel that exists."
“A couple of weeks ago I realized everything felt so normal and amazing all of the sudden. Our family feels complete again,” added Ari Pringle, Shyamlee’s husband.
“My dream was that it would work out like this," Weaver said in reply. "That you would have happy family memories and times together. And, that it is actually happening is amazing,” said Jennifer.
“We love you,” added Shyamlee Pringle's mom and dad, offering virtual kisses across the internet.
“We’ll be friends for a lifetime,” said Pringle.
That evening the Pringle and Weaver family met at a drive-thru holiday light display. They connect daily and have open-ended plans to visit India someday, once the pandemic risks are over.
Jennifer Weaver said her new passion is sharing her experiences and the power of living kidney donation.
Learn more about UCHealth’s Living Donor Program