CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Naperville woman is scheduled to receive a new kidney from her husband — her second kidney transplant surgery after receiving one from her sister 36 years ago.
Doctors said 36 years is a long time for a transplanted kidney to last. And after receiving a kidney when she was 18, now 55-year-old Beth Malik’s health started failing.
“When I was 18 I was single. I wasn’t married, obviously. And today I’m married with two children and two dogs. I mean, I need to live. I need to live,” Beth Malik told WBBM Newsradio.
A neighbor volunteered to donate a kidney as well did two people, who were volunteered anonymously and also went through the testing and were backups.
But it was Beth Malik’s husband, Paul, who is giving his wife a kidney.
Beth Malik said she know she is loved and as she waited on pre-op testing at the Mayo Clinic, she said why she wants to share her story.
“To tell people you don’t need your organs when you die. And people out there need them. And everyone has two kidneys, and if you can give somebody the gift to live a little longer, you should,” she said.
Beth Malik said she’ll be in the hospital about a month and then will go back home to Naperville.
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