DALLAS — Jereme Peterson needed a miracle to happen after three years and ten hours a day on dialysis.
The 42-year-old federal corrections officer had hit rock bottom with his weight at 315 pounds and his kidney function approaching the single digits.
"'What would happen if I stopped doing dialysis?' And he was like, 'you got two months to live, get your affairs in order,'" he recalled his doctor saying.
His name was added to the transplant waiting list but he said it could take five to seven years to get a kidney. It was a miracle that his high school classmate from 25 years ago in Blountstown, Florida was going through her phone one night and saw a social media post from Peterson pleading for a donor. Angelina Attaway felt the call to help.
"I could just see the relief and I think that was more heavy than anything you know," said Attaway.
Representatives at Medical City Dallas tell WFAA that Attaway intended to be anonymous.
The recipient often does not know the donor's identity until a year after the surgery. But, it was pure happenstance that the two of them were in the hospital lobby together while trying to pre-register the day before surgery.
"She said, 'Yeah, this is Angie' and I'm like 'Angie girl, how you doing?' You know, I give her a big hug and everything and I instantly forget where I'm at," said Jereme.
Peterson said he saw a face he recognized. The two hugged in the middle of the lobby. And, that's when Angelina broke the news to him that she was his donor.
"Time just stopped and then when she told me she was my donor, time really stopped," he said.
Dr. Tiffany Anthony, who is an Abdominal Transplant Surgeon with Medical City Dallas, said it was such a beautiful moment. Dr. Anthony tells WFAA that it's not every day you hear about a white woman donating a kidney to a black man.
She says during a time of so much division and anger, this is such a positive story about humanity.
"On an individual level, the human spirit really wants to help someone in need. They will be bonded for the rest of their lives," said Dr. Anthony who performed the donor surgery.
Dr. Anthony says being a living kidney donor is a lot easier than most people think. She encourages living donations. After all, it lasts longer than a deceased donor kidney because it has immediate function.
The first hurdle to a living kidney donation is blood type compatibility.
"It’s like we’ve become family in a way. We share a body part, you know, so, we always say, 'How’s our kidney doing?'" said Attaway.
Angelina and Jereme were classmates in typing class together 25 years ago and now they're bonded through a living kidney donation. The surgeries went well and Jereme is responding well to the new kidney and is on routine medication.