Guilford County paramedic donates kidney to stranger

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — There are just 6,500 organ donations from living donors each year in the United States. A Guilford County paramedic is now among them.

Senior Paramedic Alexis Williams joined a site called The Great Social Experiment and saw a post that made her stop scrolling.

It was from a young woman named Shamarya Johnson who said she was fighting for her life and in desperate need of a kidney transplant, and there was something else that called to her to make a profound sacrifice for a stranger.

“She went into kidney failure when she was pregnant, and she delivered at 30 weeks … She lost her baby two months later,” Williams said.

Born premature, Shamarya Johnson’s baby boy Amari didn’t survive complications. It’s a story she shared on The Great Social Experiment that reached Williams.

“In 2022, I lost my ability to ever have kids. I had a total hysterectomy, and I knew if I did this, it would give her the ability to conceive,” Williams said.

Williams filled out the required forms and took the required medical tests at East Carolina University to see if she was a match.

“They called back, and they were ready to schedule surgery,” Williams said.

It was booked for September, but then Williams got hurt.

“I tore my ACL, my MCL, dislocated my kneecap, and I have a hairline fracture in my femur,” she said.

The donation was moved up to the first week of September. Williams and Johnson were brought in together.

A week after surgery, Johnson isn’t trapped for hours on dialysis anymore, and she can have children.

“I am feeling so super blessed and excited about that … It’s been a rough, rough year,” Johnson said.

The two talk multiple times a day.

“I am just so thankful to Alexis and her family for giving me the opportunity … to start a family,” she said.

Willaims is now passionately asking people to consider a living donation.

“It’s so important. We really need more living donors,” she said.

If you are interested in learning about living donation, click here to see the requirements and learn what you need to know about recovery.

As of today, more than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ donation in the United States.

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