A Bond Like No Other: Indiana Man Marries His Kidney Donor
Parade | ASHLEIGH SCHMITZ
When Kyle Froelich and Chelsea Clair met in 2009, they had no idea how much they would change each others’ lives. Now, almost four years later, the organ donor and her recipient are married.
At age 12, Froelich was diagnosed with a fatal kidney disorder. By the time he was a senior in high school, his need for an organ transplant became a life-and-death situation. Many of his family and friends had tried and failed to be a genetic match and doctors estimated that he only had one year to live.
That was before he met Clair at a car show in 2009. The two quickly hit it off and spent the day driving around in Clair’s Camaro. When he told her about his condition, she immediately volunteered her own kidney, should it be a match.
In the U.S., the wait list for a new kidney is 110,000 people long, and in Indiana, it can take three to five years to find a suitable donor, Dr. William C. Goggins, kidney transplant surgical director at IU Health, told the Indianapolis Star. Having dealt with a significant amount of rejection, Froelich was used to hearing “no.†But as fate would have it, Clair’s kidney tested to be a near-perfect match.
At age 12, Froelich was diagnosed with a fatal kidney disorder. By the time he was a senior in high school, his need for an organ transplant became a life-and-death situation. Many of his family and friends had tried and failed to be a genetic match and doctors estimated that he only had one year to live.
That was before he met Clair at a car show in 2009. The two quickly hit it off and spent the day driving around in Clair’s Camaro. When he told her about his condition, she immediately volunteered her own kidney, should it be a match.
In the U.S., the wait list for a new kidney is 110,000 people long, and in Indiana, it can take three to five years to find a suitable donor, Dr. William C. Goggins, kidney transplant surgical director at IU Health, told the Indianapolis Star. Having dealt with a significant amount of rejection, Froelich was used to hearing “no.†But as fate would have it, Clair’s kidney tested to be a near-perfect match.
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