There are 100,000 people in the U.S. waiting for a kidney transplant, and the waiting list is climbing as people get older.
However, when two different Louisiana mothers decided to ask for a life-saving kidney on social media, strangers quickly answered their call.
It's a beautiful story that touches your soul when you hear about a person donating a kidney to a perfect stranger, simply because a Facebook post popped up. It's even more amazing when it happens twice.
"A stranger. A 20-year-old, she's 20! I was in awe," said Jordan Starks.
School teacher and Ochsner patient Jordan Starks is only 23. She needs a kidney because of problems during her pregnancy.
"I have a two-year-old. Like, he needs his mama, so I was desperate. I posted it on Facebook and this wonderful person, out of the kindness of her heart, decided to help," said Starks.
Lauren Lawes is in college and wants to be a teacher herself. Both live in Thibodaux, but they had never met. Now, as they await surgery day, they are inseparable.
"Oh my God, she's my kidney sister. I love her to death. I literally ask my husband everyday if she can move in," Starks laughs. "And I'm not joking."
Around the same time, another pair of women, complete strangers, both in their 50s, were having the same experience.
"We've just really hit it off. We refer to each other as sisters, which I never had a sister. We're getting closer and closer even though it's just through Facebook," said Jeri Gill.
Jeri Gill of Springfield, Louisiana read a post from another Ochsner patient, Angela Robertson, of Marksville, Louisiana. She's been in dialysis for seven years because of a genetic condition that has taken the lives of many in her family.
"I said, if God willing, I'll get a kidney this year. I just don't know what else to do. I put in on Facebook and in three days, I got 3,000 shares," said Robertson, 50.
"It goes back to the golden rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' And that's reason enough for me," said Gill, 53, who hopes someone would do the same for her family.
The Tulane Kidney Living Donor program says there is a shortage of organs.
"It's rare that somebody finds somebody on social media that's not directly related to them, but I do expect that to go up a little bit. Our job as a transplant center is to make sure this happens safely, the donor and the recipient both understand the risks of this," explained Dr. Anil Paramesh, a Professor of Surgery, Urology, and pediatrics and the Surgical Director for the Kidney, Pancreas and Living Donor program at Tulane.
"There's nothing special about my kidneys. They're 53-year-old kidneys, and I just happen to be willing to spare one," said Gill who hopes this message of living donation spreads across the country.
Both pair of women are awaiting surgery. Doctors say kidneys from a living donor last twice as long as a kidney from a deceased donor.