Transplant patients meet in person for the first time at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia

Transplant patients who are now part of each other had the opportunity to meet in person at a special introduction at Temple Hospital on Friday.

Strangers with a special connection meet for the first time.

Seventeen-year-old Evelyn Bautista, in white, now has one of Megan Bosack’s kidneys.

“I feel good, I feel great,” said Bautista.

Twenty-one-year-old Bosack had something called nutcracker syndrome, compression of a vein to the kidney that disrupts blood flow and causes pain.

The New York paralegal came to Temple, where Dr. Kenneth Chavin is renowned for treating the condition. For Bosack, removing one of her two kidneys cured her.

“I just thought I have a perfectly healthy kidney,” said Bosack. “I could give someone else a completely new chance at life.”

Bosack is called an altruistic donor, not knowing where her donated kidney would go.

“They’re able to have that miracle of donating and transforming someone’s life,” said Dr. Kenneth Chavin, Temple University Hospital. 

Doctors said kidney donors are carefully screened and selected and then can go on to live healthy, normal lives.

“I feel much better,” said Bosack.

And so does Bautista, a high school senior with congenital kidney failure who’d been living on dialysis until the transplant on April 7.

“She gave me the opportunity of life, it means a lot to me,” said Bautista.

They brought gifts for each other, discovering another connection. Their new motto is on a pillow that says “Girls With One Kidney Have More Fun.”

“I feel like we can get along really well,” said Bosack.

New friends now sharing the gift of life.

Bautista said she eventually wants to study medicine and maybe be a nurse, a tribute to the intervention that saved her life.

Stephanie Stahl

Stephanie Stahl is an Emmy Award-winning health reporter. She can be seen daily on CBS News Philadelphia and Philly57.