She found a kidney for ailing mom via social media

‘I never thought we would be able to find somebody’ — until donor volunteered

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>> someone she didn't even know weeks before. "today" national correspondent jenna wolfe has details on this for us.

>> this is a great story, and a feel-good story. what makes it unique is how the meeting between these wonderful people came about, through social media .

>> reporter: it's thursday night, a typical weeknight. mom and daughter cooking dinner, catching up, trading tips and trading barbs.

>> my mom and i are close. she's everybody's mom. i'm proud that i have a mother like that.

>> we'll get your weight and temperature.

>> reporter: the last ten years have been anything but easy for her. she's been suffering from kidney disease and seven months ago, her health took a turn for the worse. facinging a lifetime of dialysis, she was in desperate need of a kidney transplant . how helpless did you feel as her daughter watching her get sicker?

>> it's hard to see somebody who is so active, so caring not be able to get up out of bed. it was hard for me to watch, you know, to see her hurting. i want her around. i want her to be healthy.

>> reporter: she was scared and runninging out of options. a social media addict, she kept friends and family informed about her mother's health through facebook and twitter.

>> i'm not a doctor. there is little i felt i could do. but i said if i start a facebook page maybe we can find a live donor.

>> reporter: did you ever in a million years when creating the page think someone would come out of the blue and say, here, have my kidney?

>> absolutely not. i never thought we would be able to find somebody that would be willing to be a donor, let alone a match.

>> reporter: but she did. within days, one of her twitter followers, amy donahue sent an e-mail that would change her life forever. what made you read a twitter post about her mom going on this kidney list?

>> it was an instant reaction. i figured i can help. i don't know if i'm a match or anything, but i can try.

>> go ahead and have a seat.

>> reporter: why would a healthy young woman want to go through this for a stranger?

>> the main reason that i really forged ahead was that my father died of cancer about eight years ago. she can get a kidney and feel better and prolong her life, give her a better quality of life . there was nothing we could do for my father. i couldn't give blood, donate a kidney, part of my liver, nothing.

>> reporter: amy told kierti something she would never forget.

>> she said, i have two kidneys. you have one mom. let's do it.

>> reporter: were they the most beautiful words?

>> on every level she's been a match. this is destiny in its purest sense.

>> reporter: destiny, luck, even a miracle considering anu was one of 83,000 patients on the kidney donor waiting list .

>> four hands, two bodies, one soul.

>> without the transplant she would have been on dialysis for quite some time.

>> reporter: your daughter decided to do efg she could. the only way she knew how. through social media .

>> yeah.

>> reporter: what do you think about the way she went about it?

>> to tell you the truth i didn't know. in hidden places she was crying. i was thinking she was a very strong girl. at the same time, the bond is mother and daughter. right? it's with lots of love. i love her so much.

>> reporter: amy and anu are out of surgery.

>> hi!

>> reporter: the kidney donated, a life saved. how will you spend the rest of your life thanking this woman who decided to help your mom the way she has?

>> i think amy knows what i feel for her in my heart. i'm grateful for that. she's saving my mother's life.

>> come on, baby.

>> i don't think that "thank you" covers it.

>> inspirational story. 'm happy to report that a month since surgery both women are doing great, feeling good and they have become almost soul mates , best friends . amy is a part of the family. they have dinner as often as they can. they have grown to know each other in a wonderful way.

>> almost as if she's maybe gotten more than she gave which is so beautiful. they look happy and healthy. jenna, thank you so much. up

Show transcript

By Michael Inbar

TODAY contributor

updated 5/20/2011 11:13:20 AM ET

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Kirti Dwivedi is a self-professed social media junkie who loves mixing it up with her friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. But recently the young Phoenix, Ariz., woman learned the power of the networks could also save the life of someone she holds most dear.

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Dwivedi had watched helplessly as her mother, Anu, continued a downward spiral brought on by a kidney disease diagnosis nearly 10 years ago. By last October, Anu’s kidney function had dropped to 20 percent. Finding a kidney donor could take years, if indeed one was ever found.

In January, Kirti turned to social media for solutions to her mother’s plight.

“It’s hard to see someone who is so active and so caring not be able to get out of bed,” Dwivedi told national correspondent Jenna Wolfe in a report that aired on TODAY Friday. “I was like, ‘I’m not a doctor.’ There is very little I felt like I can do, but if I start a Facebook page, maybe we can find a live donor.”

A shot in the dark
So Kirti started a Facebook page she called “Kidney Disease & My Tiny Mother,” even though she regarded it as little more than a shot in the dark. “I never thought that we would be able to find somebody that would be willing to be a donor, let alone a match,” she said.

But that was before she heard from Amy Donohue, who proved to be not only a willing donor, but a viable match for Kirti’s mom. Donohue had seen Dwivedi’s Facebook page, and then chatted with Kirti about her mother’s plight via tweets. Soon, Donohue sent Dwivedi an email volunteering to be a donor for Anu.

Why? Because, Donohue told TODAY’s Wolfe, she had a very personal motive for stepping up to help a woman whose daughter she only knew online.

Video: Mom’s life saved by daughter’s tweet (on this page)

“The main reason that I really forged ahead was that my father died of cancer about eight years ago,” Donohue said. “[Anu] could get a kidney and feel better and prolong her life, give her a better quality of life. There was nothing I could do for my father.”

More stories about real-life Heroes & Angels

Anu hadn’t realized her daughter had been pleading for a donor via social media. “I did not know she was crying and crying for help,” she told Wolfe. “She’s a very strong girl and very understanding … with lots of love. I love her so much.”

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Donohue went through a battery of tests this spring, tests that showed she would indeed be a good match to donate a kidney to Dwivedi. The transplant surgery took place in mid-April, and by all reports was successful.

While one of Donohue’s kidneys now does its work inside Anu, their hearts are also matched — Donohue is a frequent dinner guest and is now considered part of the family.

“I think Amy knows what I feel for her in my heart, and I’m grateful for that,” Kirti told Wolfe. “She’s saving my mother’s life. I don’t think ‘thank you’ really covers it.”

Anu Dwivedi added to KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, “I don’t think a word has been created to thank somebody for a gift like that!”