Cesar and Monica Calle promised to be there for one another in sickness and in health so when the opportunity arose for Cesar Calle to donate his kidney to his wife, that is exactly what the Weston, Florida, man did.
The act came on the eve of the couple's 23rd wedding anniversary and was a gift that meant Monica Calle would no longer need to undergo painful dialysis treatment for polycystic kidney disease, which she was diagnosed with a decade ago, Fox News noted.
"I was in a lot of pain, I was scared," Monica Calle said. "And I didn't know if there was gonna be a miracle for me."
Unable to see her suffer any longer, Cesar Calle offered to donate his kidney to his wife and in December they received notification that he was a match, an occurance that is "very unusual but very lucky," said Dr. Juan Arenas, a surgeon and chief of the hospital's Memorial Transplant Institute, where the transplant was performed.
Hospital staff immediately got to work, preparing the couple for the five-hour surgery, which ultimately required 30 health care professionals including surgeons, nurses, a dietitian and a social worker, The Sun-Sentinel reported.
The big day arrived on Feb. 19, which turned out to be a success, and the couple recovered quickly and were released back home days later.
Monica Calle has now started dreaming of what the future is going to look like for her, not having to undergo dialysis.
"The fact that I can actually travel now and not worry about carrying boxes with me or supplies or worry if it's gonna get lost," she said, per The Sun-Sentinel.
She knows that she was given "an amazing gift," adding that "God put this man in my life for a reason. He saved my life."
According to the U.S. Division of Transplantation, there are still over 114,000 people waiting for an organ and only 130 million signed up as organ donors in the U.S.
Each day about 20 people die waiting for a transplant and another person is added to the waiting list every 10 minutes.
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