The Chow family was told that their 33-year-old daughter, Brittney, would have to wait about twelve years for a kidney transplant. There were currently no kidneys available for transplantation. Elizabeth Chow, Brittney’s Mother, stepped up and donated her own kidney.
Elizabeth told KTLA about the full cycle of emotions she experienced. She said initially the gesture felt as if she was giving her daughter a second chance to live a normal life. But then the feeling grew into Elizabeth finding peace within herself. She said that her kidney is not gone, it is simply sitting in another part of her.
Brittany Chow M.D.
Brittany is a chief pediatric resident stationed at Loma Linda Hospital. By her own admission, she often does not follow up on her own health exams. However, she was very aware that she had high blood pressure paired with constant fatigue.
Brittany initially attributed her fatigue to stress levels, her weight, and her job. However, when she realized that she was having shortness of breath climbing stairs, she began to pay more attention to her health.
She finally agreed to go to urgent care and found her blood pressure to be well above the normal range.
Brittany was tested extensively while in the ER and received shocking test results. The biopsy identified significant scarring to a degree that the doctors estimated she only had about ten percent kidney function.
The diagnosis was IgA nephropathy, a disease involving antibodies that accumulate in the kidneys. As a result, inflammation occurs which interferes with kidney function and filtering waste. The only option for end-stage kidney disease is transplantation. Although Brittany’s father and her brother wanted to donate their kidney, only her mother was eventually eligible.
Life Changes
The path that led to the day of operation was not smooth.
Initially, Elizabeth was not eligible to donate her kidney but this meant her daughter’s life and nothing else mattered. Both women immediately began to take steps to lose weight. In the final analysis, Elizabeth lost twenty pounds and Brittany, who was on dialysis, lost fifty-five pounds. Their surgery was rescheduled a month sooner due to Brittany’s critical lab results. Yet the shortened time frame gave the women very little time for mental preparation.
Elizabeth said that when she made the decision to be a donor, she went on to the next step without giving it a second thought.
The surgery was performed on March 28th. The two women were eventually allowed to go home and begin their recovery.
Understandably Brittany said she does not know how she could ever thank her mother. If all goes well Brittany should be back to work this summer.
