Living Donor's Kidney Helps Save the Life a Friend's 21-Year-Old Daughter

Pam Herrington didn’t realize how good her friends were until she lost her husband about a year ago and those closest to her surrounded her with support. So when her friend of 40 years, Debbie, mentioned that her daughter Sophia would one day need a kidney transplant, Herrington knew what she would have to do.

“I knew in my heart that I would get tested to be a match,” she says. “I felt that this is what I’ve got to do.”

At 17 months old, Sophia was diagnosed with Cystinosis. Herrington remembers the day the toddler was taken to the doctor and rushed to MUSC to have tests run. “From that point on, there was problem after problem,” Herrington remembers. “Drops in her eyes several times a day to prevent blindness, a feeding tube, one thing after another. I have watched this child go through so many things.”

This year, at age 21, Sophia was placed on a kidney transplant list. Herrington immediately called MUSC Health and quietly began going through the process of determining whether or not she was a match.

It took a week to get the tests back. MUSC Health’s kidney transplant team explained to Herrington that though she wasn’t a positive match, she could join the Living Donor Program, which essentially guaranteed a kidney for Sophia.

“I said, ‘I’m in,’” Herrington recalls. “‘My goal is to get Sophia that kidney.’”

At 53, Herrington was glad to hear that at her age, she was healthy enough to give her kidney. She admits to being a health fanatic. “The Lord put me in a place in my life when I knew I had been taking good care of myself, doing what I was supposed to be doing,” she says. “Now I know why I did.”

By September, a match, Lowcountry woman Catherine Rea, was found for Sophia and a donor chain was started. On October 21, three people would receive a kidney, with Herrington’s going to a South Carolina man who she still keeps in touch with. He’s doing well, she says, and so is she. In fact, she’d do it again four times over if given the chance.

“My kidney might be inside of one man, but because I was able to give, three people received a kidney that day,” Herrington says. “And I am well. I still live the life I want to live. It’s no different than breaking an arm and you can't do something for a few weeks and you're back at it. My life is going to go on.”

Herrington urges others who may be considering becoming a living donor not to second-guess themselves. “And don't think you're too old,” she says. If you're given good health, why not share that with someone? If you can extend someone's life five years or ten years—if you extend it a year—look at the life you have given them.”

Herrington’s seamless and detailed care at MUSC Health’s Kidney Transplant Program also colored her experience. “Everybody at MUSC made me feel like I was the only patient that they had. They were wonderful to me, caring and concerned about me,” she says. “...If we lived close enough to Charleston and had been able to come to MUSC, I feel like I would have my husband today because they just take such good care of you.”

As for Sophia, she’s doing amazing, Herrington says, fighting back tears. “It's just wonderful to see her flourish and be able to do the things every 21 year old wants to do, you know?”