DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit man diagnosed with kidney failure survived a COVID-19 diagnosis. Now his wife, who also survived the virus, is making an extraordinary effort to help save his life for a second time this year.
She's been matched to give him a kidney.
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Detroit woman a perfect match to donate kidney to her husband of 17 years
A Detroit man diagnosed with kidney failure survived a COVID-19 diagnosis. Now his wife, who also survived the virus, is making an extraordinary effort to help save his life for a second time this year.
On a beautiful late summer day Natisha and Chris Fudge, along with their three kids, are walking to get in shape. It's been a whirlwind year for them and in a few months, both parents will be undergoing surgery.
Chris needs a new kidney. He was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2018 and his health has been failing ever since. Just months before the COVID-19 pandemic began he was put on a transplant list. But as the family was waiting, Natisha contracted COVID-19 in May while working at a nursing home. And then Chris got it, too.
"Lo and behold middle of a 12-hour shift my mask snapped while working a COVID unit and next thing you know, within 24 hours I had COVID," she said.
Chris was in the hospital for about a week.
"If I could think of everything I've been through since I heard about the kidney stuff, that was the worst," he said.
"We watched the news. We see how many deaths have happened because of this whole thing in the early months of this happening," said their son, who's also named Chris. "We knew they were going to do their best to make it but all of us still had the fear in the back of our mind thinking, what if they don't make it? What are we going to do?"
Thankfully they both made it - but the health scare came just months after another one when Chris almost died after collapsing at their Detroit home. Now Natisha was left with just one thought, saving his life.
"If there was anything that I can do to save his life I was going to do it. And I know that if it was a vice-versa, anything he could do to save my life, he was going to do it," she said. The two have been married for almost 17 years. So she looked into donating her kidney.
"I didn't even tell him at first. I just started sending off the paperwork to be tested through two different sites," she said.
And turns out, she is a perfect match. She found out the news about a month ago.
"They got the results on his birthday, which I started crying cause I'm a cry baby," Natisha said. And she even pushed herself to lose 40 lbs. in order to get tested.
"When we figured out she was going to be a match everything just changed right there. I was amazed," said their son Kristian.
"When we found out our mom was a perfect match for our dad, we jumped up in excitement," said their daughter Krysha.
"She's been my biggest support and my family, if I did not have them I don't know if I would have made it this far," Chris said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for the surgeries. You can make a donation here. if you'd like.