Sarah Farrell, RN, a nurse at Attleboro, Mass.-based Sturdy Memorial Hospital, is donating a kidney to a patient care assistant she works with at the facility, reports the Taunton Daily Gazette.
Ms. Farrell learned she was a donor match to 53-year-old Eileen Montville Nov. 7. Ms. Montville was diagnosed with a progressive kidney disease at age 17 and has been undergoing dialysis for the past three years.
The two women have worked together for several years but were not close friends until they were assigned the same shift in May. That's when Ms. Farrell learned Ms. Montville was on a waiting list for a kidney.
"I had no idea how much she has to struggle every day to stay alive," Ms. Farrell told Taunton Daily Gazette. "For me it's like donating a dollar. It's only a kidney. I have two. Everyone wants to make it about me, but it's really not."
The women will undergo their transplant surgeries Dec. 18 at Boston-based Tufts Medical Center.