Couple get married after meeting online: she discovers she can donate a kidney to save her husband's life
Nowadays, it is very difficult to find one's so-called "soul mate" - a partner who makes one's heart beat with passion from the moment we meet them. And Dan and Lisa Summers got lucky: the two met online, and quickly realized that they were in love and that their lives would never be the same again. They had no idea how true that was, and they certainly didn't know just how compatible they really were.
via CNN
Before the Summers met and fell in love, Dan, now in his 30s, suffered from a kidney condition he discovered in his 20s. "I've known for about 10 years that there was going to be a big problem sooner or later," Dan said. "Doctors thought it would happen when I was 50 or 60, but it ended up happening last year." Dan needed a kidney transplant, and as it turns out, Lisa was a perfect donor. The chances of this happening? 1 in 100,000, according to experts.
The two met on an online dating site and immediately fell in love. Lisa said the site had marked them as being "extremely compatibile" and this turned out to be right on the money! "It's like falling in love with a stranger sitting next to you on a train. We had a feeling it would work out for us," Lisa explained. The transplant was carried out at the UCSF Medical Center, near their home in Auburn, California, and was a complete success.
Although the Summers are now back home with their son Jasper, the experience has given them a new lease on life. “I love being able to have my husband with me and seeing him holding our son's hand, carrying him, or playing with him,” Lisa said. "It's like there's an added appreciation that my son can have his dad while he is growing up," she added.
The Summers family are working to promote kidney donations, as they strongly believe that this is a valuable service: "There is a shortage of donors right now and there are many people who have kidney problems. And dialysis is not easy to cope with,” Dan explained. “With a living donor, you can extend your life by 10, 20, or sometimes even 30 years,” he added. In short, a donation like this can literally give someone their life back.
