A Nashville husband and wife are recovering at home together after she donated a kidney to him in a rare transplant case of spouses matching each other.
Stephen and Amy Bredfeldt of Franklin, Tennessee, underwent kidney transplant surgery on April 30 shortly after learning that doctors at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital agreed to a panel and determined that Amy was a partial match for her husband.
Amy first began the process of donating a kidney with the intent to help a stranger and move Stephen up on the list in early 2024 when Stephen’s health got to the point where doctors told him he would have to get a kidney donation or live his life on dialysis, the couple told local news outlet WSMV.
“It seemed impossible that we would be a match. There’s a lot of things that have to match up,” Amy said.
However, after undergoing a battery of tests, she received a call from doctors that she could be the person to potentially save her husband from a life of dialysis treatment.
“I was so happy. I actually left the office, went in my car and cried, then pulled myself together, and then I called [Stephen],” she told the outlet of her reaction to the unexpected news.
Stephen was diagnosed with a rare genetic kidney disease called LGA Nephropathy in 2022 after an incident in which he fainted.
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“There were times when I’d given up, times when I thought it would’ve been better if I just died in that moment when I passed out,” Stephen told WSMV. “Because I’m like, what kind of life is it to live on dialysis?”
Of receiving the news from Amy that she would be his donor, he said, “I couldn’t believe it at first. I honestly didn’t believe it.”
The couple is home now after their respective April 30 surgeries, and Stephen takes about 35 pills per day to prevent his body from rejecting his new kidney from Amy.
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“She’s my hero,” Stephen said of his wife. “Like, she literally saved my life, and it’s something that I’ll never forget to always be grateful for.”
Amy and Stephen’s family members set up a GoFundMe page to help the couple pay medical expenses that their insurance is not covering.
