A 23-year-old woman in San Diego took to TikTok to track down a kidney donor last year — and found one.
Ruby Duran’s video wasn’t widely seen, only amassing about 12,000 views on her original post, but one of the viewers happened to be a match. The donor, Sandra Leon, shared Duran’s O-positive type. Duran was on peritoneal dialysis at the time.
According to Duran, the waiting list for a kidney transplant is 10 years long. Leon volunteering to donate meant she only had to wait five months to undergo transplant surgery, receiving her new kidney in October 2021.
MAN TURNS TO LINKEDIN TO RAISE REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON BROTHER’S MURDER
@rubi.x0x0 Life waiting on a kidney transplant is so rough! Let’s turn the comment section green for kidney failure warriors. ? #kidneytransplant #foryou ♬ Fight Song – Alyssa Grace
Their story recently went viral in another TikTok from Duran in March, this time receiving over 80,000 views. TikTok also brought attention to the story, tweeting about it Friday.
The power of connection and community on TikTok ? https://t.co/zNj3TtAqkR
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) April 29, 2022
“My kidney donor and I have a bond that no one will understand,” Duran wrote in a post.
“Because of TikTok I was able to find this beautiful soul in need of a kidney,” Leon wrote in a post shortly before Duran’s surgery. The post included a compilation of Duran’s family members reacting to the news that she’d found a donor. “Anyone else going [through] this, don’t give up!”
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Recipients of a living kidney donor’s transplant have a success rate of over 98%, and those who receive a deceased donor’s kidney have a success rate of 94%.
