Teresa "Terie" Cota was a match for kidney donation to her brother-in-law, Christopher. Sadly, Chris succumbed to one of his many health issues before the surgery. Terie felt that her kidney could still help someone through non-directed donation. On the one-year anniversary of Chris's death, Terie received the news that a recipient had been identified. "The decision was simple," said Terie. "I had been given the gift of health, and I wanted to share it. I believe that opportunities to make choices like these are the best part of being human."

Terie's Story

In 2010, Teresa "Terie" Cota, a former elementary school teacher, was cleared to donate a kidney to her husband's brother, Christopher, a diabetic who was in end-stage renal failure.

"I was truly looking forward to being a part of giving Chris back his active life," said Terie. For the next two years, Chris struggled to get healthy enough for surgery, but that journey ended abruptly on May 28, 2012, when he succumbed to one of his many health issues.

"As our family mourned in the months that followed, I kept remembering the feeling I'd had, that as a potential donor to Chris, one of my kidneys 'belonged' to him, and that I'd just been caring for it until he could eventually take possession of it," recalled Terie. "Now that he no longer needed it, I wondered if it could be someone else's. So I began to investigate non-directed donation."

Terie went on to say that "I daydreamed about recipients: perhaps a young person who would go on to lead the country, or write a brilliant song; or a mother who would be able to watch her children grow to adulthood; or a grandfather who could stay alive to meet a future grandchild. Or my kidney could go to someone downright unlovable and not careful of his or her health. And it could fail in the body of any recipient.

"However, in the end, I decided that with any kind of donation, the defining element for the donor is intent. When I weighed potential health risks to that of the benefits to someone else's life, and to the model I might set for my children and grandchildren, the decision was simple. I had been given the gift of health, and I wanted to share it. I believe that opportunities to make choices like these are the best part of being human."

On May 28, 2013, the one-year anniversary of her brother-in-law's death, Terie was called by Cedars-Sinai with the news: "We have a recipient and a date."

"Christopher's wife, Gerri, believes it was a sign that I got the call that day," said Terie. '"It's like Chris is giving you his blessing,'" she told me.