A year ago, Christine Hernandez and Eileen Kerlin Walsh were total strangers. Now, Hernandez is hoping to one day visit Kerlin Walsh’s family in Ireland.Hernandez, 51, had spent the past eight years doing everything she could to find a kidney donor — from passing out business cards with her stor y to showcasing her search on billboards along highways. She had been among more than 3,700 people in Illinois waiting for a kidney transplant.Kerlin Walsh read about Hernandez's efforts last fall in a Chicago Sun-Times story. She was struck by the idea that Hernandez was searching for a miracle and that Hernandez still held out hope despite having experienced so many setbacks.“And I just thought, ‘What an opportunity, what a privilege to be somebody’s miracle,’” Kerlin Walsh said.So she decided to donate a kidney to Hernandez. The transplant took place in April.Hernandez sees the connection she now has with Kerlin Walsh as a “lifelong sisterhood.”People sometimes give a nickname to their donated organ. Hernandez decided to call her kidney “Miracle.”“I didn’t know if I was ever going to have a chance to have a life again,” Hernandez said, “and to be able to enjoy life like I used to.” Christine Hernandez had searched far and wide for years to find a living kidney donor.Zubaer Khan / Sun-Times ‘Held my own feet to the fire’Kerlin Walsh’s late mother believed in miracles. Before her death in 2021, the two had gone on pilgrimages to healing apparition sites from Rome to the Knock Shrine in Ireland. The trips were a way for Kerlin Walsh to spend time with her mother. Being one of 12 children meant she didn’t get very much alone time with her.She thinks her mother played a role in her decision to become a kidney donor.“I never felt that I lived up to her faith,” she said, tearing up. “Something about this … gives me the opportunity to maybe be my mother’s daughter.” Eileen Kerlin Walsh holds a photo of her mother Mary Kerlin, whose lessons inspired her to donate her kidney.Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times That wasn't all that convinced Kerlin Walsh to become Hernandez’s donor. They had the same blood type. Both were mothers with kids around the same ages. And she read about Hernandez and what she was going through a month after turning 60. The milestone had her reflecting on her own life. She made a video about her accomplishments and about how she wanted to spend the next part of her life giving back.“I watched it and rewatched it and really asked myself what I meant by that,” she said. “Held my own feet to the fire.”More challenges than finding a donor Kerlin Walsh contacted UI Health in October to apply to become a kidney donor for Hernandez. She eventually got a letter in February confirming that she was a match. She told her husband and children about her decision but held off on telling others.Finding a donor was only one of Hernandez’s hurdles. She had a rare form of kidney disease — MUC1. And she had extremely high levels of antibodies, which brought a higher risk that her body might reject a donated organ. After years of waiting for a kidney transplant, Christine Hernandez is recovering at home following surgery in April.Provided Doctors used a medication called Imlifidase that has helped patients like Hernandez successfully undergo a transplant by breaking down antibodies. The drug has been approved for use in Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia. But its maker, the Swedish company Hansa Biopharma, is still in the process of getting approval through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Dr. Lorenzo Gallon, director of UI Health's Abdominal Organ Transplant Program, said it took about three months to get two vials of the medication through a process known as compassionate use. Gallon said he believes Hernandez is the first person in Illinois to get a transplant with Imlifidase.‘I just loved her instantly’ About a week before the transplant, Kerlin Walsh was sitting in the waiting room of UI Health when she heard Hernandez’s name called. They hadn’t met before.“This lady in front of me just walks up and away, and my heart was pounding,” Kerlin Walsh said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, that’s her. She’s right in front me. Should I say something to her?’”She asked a nurse if donors and recipients typically meet. The nurse said not usually, unless it happens by accident. Kerlin Walsh told the nurse she'd seen Hernandez in the waiting area. The nurse spoke with Hernandez and then brought the women together.Hernandez and Kerlin Walsh hugged. They cried. They talked about their families. They exchanged phone numbers. The women started occasionally texting.“I just loved her instantly, and I know she loved me, too,” Kerlin Walsh said.Doctors administered one of the Imlifidase vials on April 9, and the worrying antibodies no longer could be detected, Gallon said. That provided a short window to perform the transplant.Hernandez prayed with her children before surgery, worried she wouldn't make it.“It was scary,” she said. “You are going to go into this big surgery, knowing that I was high-risk. But I was going to go through with it. Just put all my faith in God and my doctors — I trusted them.”Kerlin Walsh said reality didn't set in until about 10 minutes before the surgery.“I just started sobbing because the fear really kicked in and then also the relief,” Kerlin Walsh said. “Because I didn’t want to leave the hospital that day not having made this donation.”‘I never lost my faith’Nearly a month after the operation, Hernandez is back home in River Grove. She’s wearing face masks to minimize exposure to anything that could derail her recovery. She still goes to the hospital for checkups every other day.It could take another three to six months before she’s considered cleared. In a year, she can start to think of traveling outside of the United States, Hernandez said.Gallon said Hernandez is being closely monitored and is “almost out of the woods.” Eileen Kerlin Walsh, who donated a kidney to Christine Hernandez, is recovering at her home in Oak Lawn.Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times Kerlin Walsh is also home now, in Oak Lawn, recovering from the surgery. The days after the operation, she said, were a bit painful, but she slowly returned to feeling like herself. She took time off from work to recover, though she planned to spend some of that time working on her book.“I just realized this was the final chapter of my book, and this was my final story of miracles and pilgrimages and faith and family and my tribute to my mother,” she said.Hernandez is hopeful she will feel well enough soon to grab coffee with Kerlin Walsh and get to know her better. She wants to take a vacation with her children, maybe to visit family in Puerto Rico or go to Disneyland. She's eager to get back into advocacy, to become a champion for others seeking organ donations.“I feel like I have a calling to help people get out of this nightmare called dialysis,” she said.Hernandez thinks her positive attitude helped her after so many years of searching for a donor.“I never lost my faith,” she said.Hernandez’s family took her to dinner recently. They went to her favorite Peruvian restaurant to celebrate her birthday. One of her sons gave her a framed painting depicting the moment Kerlin Walsh checked on her after the transplant. In it, the women are looking at each other, holding hands. Christine Hernandez named her new kidney “miracle.” She was recently given a picture showing the moment after the transplant when she and her donor embraced.Provided Related A campaign to find a new kidney spans social media, billboards and TV. This Chicago woman is still searching. ...read more read less