Woman who survived kidney failure donates her wish back to Make A Wish Michigan
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A young woman who survived kidney failure five years ago as a teen and then never got her wish of going on a cruise due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now in the clear – and donating her wish back to others who need it.
Tiffani Hunt is 22 today but when she was a teenager, she was a dialysis patient at Children's Hospital and in need of a new kidney.
"It's a lot to go through - especially at a young age," she said.
It was a grueling schedule. Hours on end, several days a week with little to do but sleep or watch TV. Make A Wish Michigan planned to send her on a cruise but it never happened because of the pandemic. Then Tiffani got her ultimate wish: a kidney transplant.
"I'm kind of in the clear now so I just wanted to do something to give back because I felt like I didn't necessarily need the wish anymore," she said.
Instead, she donated her wish to make other wishes come true. Those wishes are five Nintendo Switches for the Children's Hospital dialysis unit which treats five patients in the morning and five in the afternoon.
Meghan Zechmeister is a social worker at the unit and says it's especially important because of what the kids go through every day.
"They're spending anywhere from three to five hours here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday," Zechmeister said. "We have kids from 2-years-old to all the way into their 20's - and so these gaming systems were the perfect thing that everyone could play with and would really make the time go faster."
Sherri Collins is the Chief Diversity and Engagement Officer and says it's more than just a wish.
"One of the things about wishes is they give children such a positive focus, and it helps them just to dream about the possibilities and look forward to the future so for her to actually take her wish and give it back to other children - it really is life-changing - it's transforming lives today," Collins said.
