Connected, Heart and Soul—and Kidney

From the moment Breanna Sipple saw a Facebook post about a woman in Philadelphia who needed a kidney, she felt a “special connection.”

That connection eventually led both women into the operating room at the Jefferson Nicoletti Kidney Transplant Center on September 12, 2017. When they emerged, Breanna had given Erin Francis one of her kidneys.

“It was the most selfless thing anyone could do for another person,” Erin says Erin. “She’s my hero.”

Erin’s chronic kidney disease stemmed from a bout with Henoch-Schönlein purpura, a condition that in rare cases can damage the kidneys, when she was four years old. Last year, the doctor who had cared for her throughout her life said that the situation was dire and she needed to get on the transplant list right away.

“I remember feeling like my life was slipping away from me,” recalls Erin, a newlywed at the time. “I thought that, at 24, my life was ending.”

Life became a blur of nightly dialysis and waiting for the call that doctors had found a kidney for her. Concerned that an organ wouldn’t be found in time, her husband, Rich, decided to create the Erin Francis Kidney Donor Page on Facebook. Unbeknownst to Rich and Erin, Breanna—a complete stranger to the couple—read the post and was moved.

“I loved Jefferson from the moment I stepped into the building. The team is so caring—they don’t look at you as a case, they look at you as people,” says Erin. Breanna adds, “At Jefferson, we felt cared for; everyone there was interested in our comfort and our well-being.”

After extensive testing, the transplant team said the surgery was a “go.” Then, a week before the scheduled date, doctors determined Erin’s strengthening antibodies increased the risk of rejection. The surgery was postponed until the team and the women could discuss the risk and ways of managing it. A treatment to lower Erin’s antibodies worked, and the operation was rescheduled for the following week.

At the end of the three-hour surgery, Breanna had given Erin a second chance at the life she had always imagined—a life without dialysis, a life in which she could plan a future with her husband.

Today, the two share a forever friendship, a positive outlook on life, a tattoo on their arms that says “Be More,” and a mission: to bring awareness to organ donation and inspire others to get past that “point of fear.”