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FORT WORTH (CBS11) – The viral video of a Fort Worth man surprising his best friend with a life-saving gift, touched the hearts of thousands.
The emotional moment uploaded onto Vimeo, shows Graham McMillan revealing to his friend–in need of a kidney transplant–that he had just been approved as his donor.
The video nearly brought Shannon and Cornelius Austin to tears.
“I’m thrilled for them, because I know what a tough journey it is,” Shannon said.
Her husband Cornelius has struggled with kidney disease for some time. Last November, his lungs failed, functioning at about three percent. He’s had to have dialysis three times a week, four hours a day, ever since. As the main provider for his family, he’s also had to slow down at work.
“It’s hard because we spend our lives at this clinic with a couple of nurses and some techs, and not with our families, and not supporting them,” said Cornelius.
They say they feel blessed to be on a transplant waiting list and blessed to have friends and acquaintances who want to be tested to see if they are a potential match. The process can be slow. The wait time for a kidney transplant in this region is on average 4 years.
“He’s had three unexpected emergency surgeries because of infections which have arisen. Every day it’s scary, that stuff can happen,” said Shannon.
“The life of a kidney patient on dialysis is simply miserable. The mortality rate is very high–sometimes as high as 20%, depending on how old they are,” said Dr. Sridhar Allam. He is the Medical Director at The Fort Worth Transplant Institute. The Austins are not working with this program.
Dr. Allam explains that finding the right living donor match for a recipient is an intricate process with many moving parts. It involves not just a surgeon and nephrologist, but also teams of people like psychologists and social workers who provide support to both the donor and recipient.
“We want to make sure our donors are safe. We want to help recipients dying for a life-saving kidney,” said Dr. Allam.
With a wife and 3 children to live for, Cornelius says he’s waiting and praying he’ll be next.
“We hope our dreams come true also, it’s just kind of a long process.”
The Austin family has set up a GoFundMe account.
To learn more about becoming an organ donor, click here.
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