J.Lo Gives Child Her Kidney

Jennifer Lopez will never have to wonder if her life has mattered.
On Nov. 4, the 26-year-old Smithson Valley High School graduate donated a kidney to 2-year-old Michael Wang, a little boy she met for the first time the day before her surgery.
“I know now that my life has had purpose,” she said. “I don’t have career goals, but I want to be the best person I can be. We all have the ability to share love and compassion.”
Most people would agree with Lopez, but few go to such extremes to live out their beliefs.
Two months before her surgery, Lopez shocked and impressed the staff an University Hospital in San Antonio when she called and announced she wanted to donate her kidney to the next person on the transplant list.
“I don’t know how seriously we took it at first because we had never had this happen before,” said hospital Spokeswoman Leni Kirkman. “We were pretty amazed at her.”
So was her family.

“Everyone in the family was blown away,” said Lopez’ uncle Bill Brown. “She’s a great example to my children and everyone in our family.”
Lopez does not consider her sacrifice extraordinary — she was just doing what she wished someone else had done for one of her close friends.

Al Ramos needed a kidney transplant several years ago, thanks to the damage wrought by diabetes. Now, he is too sick to have the operation.
“I watched what that disease did to his body,” Lopez said. “It seemed so senseless.”
Lopez did not want to see anyone else go through the same heartache if she could prevent it.
Through two months of tests to verify her ability to donate, Lopez wondered about who would get her kidney. She imagined it would probably be someone like Ramos, someone older.
When she found out her organ would be saving a baby with his whole life ahead of him, her perspective changed.
“It changed everything when I found out it was going to a child,” she said. “I didn’t have any more second thoughts after that.”

Michael was born two months premature with diseased kidneys. He has spent both years of his short life hooked up to machines and one year on the transplant list.
Lopez met Michael and his mom Yi the day before the surgery.
“It was so powerful, seeing all the hope in his mother’s face,” Lopez said. “He was so small in such a big bed, and he was all hooked up to machines.”

The next day, as the anesthesia carried her into unconsciousness, Lopez reminded herself to ask about Michael as soon as she woke up.
The surgery was a success – the little boy’s body accepted its new organ, and Lopez was surprised at how little discomfort she experienced.
She headed home four days after checking into the hospital with no idea she would be back within the week with a bout of Pancreatitis, a painful complication of her surgery.
“I knew it was a possibility,” she said. “The hardest part was not being able to eat or drink anything for a whole week.”
During Lopez’s second stay, Yi Wang visited her every day – a continuous affirmation that she had done the right thing.
Now that she is recovered enough to go back to work and attend class at Texas State University where she is studying Philosophy and Theology, Lopez said she hoped her story encouraged others to give of themselves, even if it was only to donate blood.
“I want to educate people about how important it is to have compassion and give what we can,” she said. “More people should know they can do this. We can all help.”