Hero boyfriend gives girlfriend his kidney for Christmas
By Timfly
For Christmas, Bairon Garzon gave his girlfriend his heart — and his kidney, too. Raquel Gomez, 27, has always had Alport syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes kidney disease. She got so sick that she required dialysis every night starting in 2014. She would connect herself to a machine through a tube in her stomach for 10 hours. Since she had to be plugged into her dialysis machine by 9 p.m. each night, it put a damper on her social life with her boyfriend of six years, Garzon, 29.
Gomez was already on the donor list, awaiting a new kidney, but average wait times for kidneys in New York are five to 10 years, the longest in the nation. Her father also suffers from kidney disease and he’s been on the list for six years so far.
Gomez’s mother and sister both offered to be donors, but their blood types made them ineligible.
Her fiancé Bairon Garzon decided to get tested to see if he would be a good match to donate his kidney to Gomez — turns out, he was truly the perfect match, the New York Post reports.
'When you see her every day going through the same experience, dealing with the machine... I wanted to get tested,' Garzon told the Post.
Bairon learned that he was a universal donor - meaning his organs could be given to anyone, regardless of their blood type - he decided it was time to give his girlfriend of six years, Raquel Gomez who has kidney disease, the gift of a lifetime.
The couple underwent surgery at Mount Sinai on October 1.
'It's quite a love story,' Dr Scott Ames, the transplant surgeon who put Garzon's kidney into Gomez.
Kidneys from live donors have a higher success rate, Ames said, adding that improvements in surgical techniques mean live donors can recover quickly. Gomez is already back to playing soccer.
'I tell him every day, he's my hero,' Gomez said.
The couple spent time pre-op in side-by-side beds and were able to recover in adjoining hospital rooms. Since the surgery, Garzon is back to playing soccer and Gomez is recovering slowly.
Garzon figures giving Gomez his kidney in October is enough to carry him through Christmas this year: "I'm not giving her any more gifts. That's it," he told the Post. "No, I'm only kidding, I don't look at it like that. I did it to help her get back to her normal life."
Garzon proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas Day. They're also planning a trip to Cuba, but above all, the couple is looking forward to celebrating their wedding next year: "We knew I'll be normal by then!" Gomez said. "I tell him every day he's my hero."
sources: NYPost / Daily Mail / Cosmopolitan
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