Patricia Harris, 57 – Donor
Silver Spring, Maryland
Georgetown University Hospital
Donated to Kiran Kochhar
Patricia Harris is donating on behalf of her son, Jonathan Harris, who has been struggling with kidney problems for most of his young life. When the one kidney he was born with stopped working, Jonathan began dialysis at just 12-years-old. The whole family was screened to see if someone could be a potential donor for him, and he received a kidney from his older brother when he was 14. By his senior year of high school, though, his body had rejected the organ. “I want my son to be able to get on with his life,” Patricia said with tears in her eyes. A beacon of hope came one day while sitting in the dialysis center. After listening to a recent GUH transplant recipient talk about Dr. Melancon, the Harris’s knew a paired exchange was something they wanted to pursue. “I feel blessed that I have an opportunity to do this for my son and that someone else can benefit from it, too—I know it’s the right thing.”
