Erika Wells received a kidney transplant at age 19, enabling her to attend Yale University’s Ph.D. program in biology, where she is now in her first year.

Erika's Story

I am here today due to the simple fact that four years ago, a complete stranger made the decision to give me life. I am the recipient of a kidney transplant.

In 1997, I was fifteen and taking my high school midterms when I noticed I was having trouble seeing the board during classes. Assuming that I needed eyeglasses like many others in my family, my parents took me to see an optometrist. After having no luck finding the right lenses for me, he dilated my pupils and discovered that the blood vessels across the back of my eyes had all burst and that I had a blood pressure of 220/200.

Needless to say, this was enough to have my parents immediately take me to the emergency room. I was eventually admitted to the ICU at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy, or chronic kidney failure. My family and I were told that I had about 15% total kidney function remaining at that time. I went from being a teenager who had trouble swallowing a Tylenol to one who took more pills in a single day than my grandparents combined. Medication was able to slow the progress of my disease and my hypertension, but three days before my 18th birthday I was placed on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant.

After a two-year wait and days away from having to undergo dialysis, I was lucky enough to receive my kidney transplant on March 2, 2001. The transplant has literally given me a completely new life, allowing me to do things that I never had the energy or drive to do in any of the years prior to my transplant. My family watched as I transformed from a shadow of a person into a healthy and energetic individual. I successfully graduated from Cal State San Bernardino as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Criminal Justice.

I began pursuing my Ph.D. at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut just this year within the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program as a member of the Physiology and Integrative Medical Biology track. My current research interests are to study the basic physiology of the renal system and different diseases associated with the kidneys. It has been over four years since I received my transplant and I am able to continue to truly live my life due to the incredible gift of organ donation.