To say the last year has been emotional for the Casillas and Rocha families would be an understatement.
But, as Heroes host Heather Jordan found out, their difficult times gave way to joy thanks to the bravery and heroism of perfect strangers - each other!
Jaime Rocha Fernandez needed a life-saving kidney transplant, but no one in his immediate family tested as a match for the 39-year-old father of three, including Jaime's sister Kathya, who wanted to help but didn't qualify to give a kidney.
At the same time, 28-year-old Joselin Casillas needed a liver transplant, but no one in her family was a match either, which was heartbreaking to her younger brother, Saul.
That's when the brilliant doctors at Keck Medicine of USC had an idea - a dual organ paired transplant exchange involving all four people.
After testing, doctors confirmed that Kathya could donate part of her liver to Saul's sister, and Saul could donate one of his kidneys to Kathya's brother.
According to the Keck Medicine PR team, "A dual organ paired exchange is already rare in the living organ transplantation world. Typically, paired exchanges occur when both recipients need the same organ. This case is even more uncommon in that one patient received a kidney and the other received a liver."
The altruistic donors say it was all worth it -
Kathya said, "It's amazing how the doctors and the team had all four people connected one. It just, it was probably must be a lot of work and they really did it. And now we have this amazing story to share."
"Just props to the team at us c for making this happen. And then for anybody who's considering donating, just have that courage that you'll be positively improving somebody else's life," said Saul.
A few months after the surgeries, all four are doing well, and now two families are connected in this extraordinary way—all thanks to this week's KNX Hereos' selfless giving!
Check out all our KNX Heroes here.
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