NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — A Niagara Falls mother finally got the call she had been waiting on.
Twenty-nine-year-old Elena DePaolo was diagnosed with kidney disease, in 2017.
At the time, she had just beat cancer after battling it for seven months.
Depaolo learned someone was a match for her to receive a kidney in May, but did not want to tell anyone because she was afraid it would get canceled again. That was the case in November 2021.
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When we spoke with her in November, she told us one kidney did not work at all, and the other kidney only worked at 50-percent.
Doctors told her she had "stage 5" kidney disease, which is considered the "end stage".
The mother had the two-hour procedure done on Monday.
The story gets better: her donor lives 15 minutes away from her home!
Elena DePaolo said, "I met my donor, and she is amazing. I am so grateful for her. It takes a truly selfless person to do what she did for me, and I don't even know her. For her to do it for a complete stranger is just amazing."
What brought the woman to donate was the fact that both of them being adoptive parents.
DePaolo said she was on the waitlist for about a year and half.
The mother and cancer survivor must now quarantine for a month and must adjust to a new diet catered to a now functioning kidney.
She told Pheben Kassahun that the first "big thing" she plans to do is to go skydiving. She said she would try this out next summer.