'A lifelong friendship' | UofL celebrates living organ donor, recipient with honor walk

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Instead of a moment of silence, a different type of organ donor walk brought applause and cheers inside the halls of the Trager Transplant Center.

Thursday afternoon, Alyssa Grimes and Kayla Doty were met with excitement for a living organ donor walk.

Unlike an organ donor walk, which includes a moment of silence for the deceased whose organs will be donated, a living organ donor walk is celebrated with the recipient and donor.

In this case, Grimes voluntarily donated her kidney to Doty.

Kayla Doty had been in need of a lifesaving kidney transplant for two years, and has spent the last year on dialysis.

If it weren't for the literal signs, she came across multiple times, Grimes may not have been the one to give Doty another chance at life. 

"There's been a sign up in my hometown in New Albany for awhile." Grimes said. "I didn't see it again then over this past summer, I saw a really big sign... I felt like I was the one that kept seeing the sign."

Grimes said she took a picture of the sign, called the number on a whim during a break at work, which connected her to the transplant center.

"You just always assume someone else is going to reach out and do it but obviously someone hadn't done anything yet or maybe they had and weren't a good match or something like that so I'm just really glad I was able to do it," Grimes said.

After a series of tests and reviews, she found out she was a perfect match for Doty. 

"I didn't think about anything negative, I've just been keeping it positive for months about this. I wanted to manifest this and honestly believed it was all going to work, and I felt that from the beginning," Grimes said. 

On Tuesday, the pair both underwent surgery. Wednesday night, while still in recovery, the two met for the first time.

"It was a really special moment," Grimes said.

"It is just amazing that Kayla gets a whole new chance of life, she already feels better," said Roxanna Doty, Kayla Doty's mother. "She's the strongest woman I know." 

If supporting Kayla Doty during her dialysis and the process of waiting for a donor was not enough, the Doty family also dealt with the loss of Kayla's dad, Roxanna's husband, less than a year ago.

"My husband is up there, we have a really great angel," Roxanna Doty said.

With their angel and prayer, the Doty family feels they were given a reason to celebrate.

"I believe God does things for a reason," Roxanna Doty said.

As for Grimes, she said it was more than worth it.

To celebrate the journey, on Tuesday, with Kayla Doty by her side, Grimes rang the living organ donor bell on the third floor of Frazier Rehabilitation Center in the Trager Transplant Center.

Immediately after, Doty was wheeled first, followed by Grimes, down a hallway of people cheering for their journey and a way to thank Grimes for her strength and selfless act. 

"We wouldn't be here without donors and recipients owe their lives to these people," said Dr. Dylan Adamson the surgical director of living kidney donation and transplant surgeon.

April is National Donate Life Month.

"About 90,000 people in this country are listed for a kidney transplant and somewhere between 20 and 25,000 occur every year, about 20% of those come from a live donor, so last year about 5,000 overall from a live donor." Adamson said. "Most people benefit from a living donor versus a deceased donor mainly because the long term expected function of that is kidney is going to be longer from a live healthy person."

Adamson said it his honor to serve in his role, working with people through this process from beginning to end.

"Part of that person will live on in another person for the rest of their life," he said. "That's a lifelong friendship that started yesterday."