TAMPA, Fla. — A 25-year-old from the Tampa Bay area got the gift of life from a stranger after she discovered she would need a kidney transplant.
Candie Barrameda said her problem started with eye issues, and she decided to get it checked out.
“The eye doctor, he took my blood pressure, and he’s like oh my gosh, it’s like through the roof. He’s like you need to go to the ER,” said Barrameda. “The ER doctor eventually came in, and she’s like, 'I’m so thankful you’re here.' She goes, 'you’re in kidney failure.'”
Barrameda, who is originally from Sarasota, then looked at her options.
“They put you on dialysis right away,” said Barrameda. “A kidney transplant isn’t a cure. It’s more of a treatment, so the best way to kind of get my life back to normal as much as I could. They said a kidney transplant would be the best way to go, so it was a race to find a donor.”
Her sister posted her need on social media, and that post made its way to 24-year-old Kathryn Kochevar.
"It's just such life-altering news, and I thought to myself I would want a stranger to help out if they were able to, and so once I had that thought, I was like, who am I to not help out,” said Kochevar.
Barrameda and Kochevar, also from Sarasota, didn’t know each other.
“She lives in Boston, so she would fly down for her appointments,” said Barrameda. “She was the one that actually called me to tell me that we were a match.”
Barrameda said the morning of surgery is the day they actually met.
Dr. Rajendra Baliga, the Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Center at Tampa General Hospital, is Barrameda’s doctor.
“The demand for kidney transplants is far outweighed by the supply of kidney organs. That’s why we encourage living donations so much,” said Dr. Baliga.
TGH said last year, they performed about 400 kidney transplants. Dr. Baliga explained what someone considering a living donation should know.
“They will have a full and thorough checkup to make sure that they don’t have any significant medical issues which will affect them in the long term. They will understand the risks and benefits,” said Baliga. “The risks and benefits are individually discussed with the patient, but overall, the risks are very low.”
Thursday marked both World Kidney Day and one-month post-operation. Barrameda and Kochevar, who are in the middle of launching a kidney foundation, encourage others to consider helping someone else too.
“There’s hundreds of thousands of people on organ donation lists that need transplants that can’t get them or won’t get them, and we have the ability to change that,” said Kochevar. “I, just as one single human, as a young 24-year-old a few years out of college, like I can make a difference, and everybody else can make that same difference, and I think that that’s not something we should take lightly.”
The two women are now bonded by fate, going from strangers to kidney soul sisters.
"We always say like she really is a real-life angel,” said Barrameda. “She saved my life, gave me a second chance of life.”
