Sisters donate kidneys to strangers to honor dad who died of kidney failure

After their father passed away in need of a kidney transplant, two sisters decided to undergo kidney removal to donate to strangers, so that two families wouldn’t have to go through what theirs did.

Illinois-based Hannah, 24, and Bethany Goralski, 25, only wanted two things – to help strangers in need of an organ donor and to make their father proud.

So they decided to achieve both by doing one thing – undergoing kidney removal and donating them to two patients in need.

Courtesy of Bethany Goralski

Their dad, Mark Goralski, passed away in September 2018 after his battle against Crohn’s disease and kidney failure.

Though he had previously undergone one transplant back in 2011, Bethany was prepared to donate a kidney to her father, but by then, doctors “told us at the time he wasn’t healthy enough for a transplant,” she said.

Courtesy of Bethany Goralski

“We just want to make sure two less families had to go through what we went through,” Bethany told Good Morning America.

“My dad was always giving, he was always helping others,” Hannah added. “And I thought, what a great way to honor him.”

The sisters underwent kidney removal in March, just about 24 hours apart. Hannah called Northwestern Memorial Hospital to schedule for a surgery one month after their father died.

Courtesy Northwestern Medicine

“Knowing a lot of people who have been affected by organ transplant, it felt selfish to keep my kidney,” Hannah said.

The sisters are now encouraging young people like them to do research about being an organ donor.

“I would tell them to do it, I don’t regret it one bit,” Bethany told GMA. Although she acknowledges that there are “definitely risks” involved in undergoing the procedure.

“I thought ‘Why wait,’” Hannah said. “If someone’s dying now and I can help them now, hopefully by then when I’m older I’ll look back and say, ‘I’m glad I didn’t wait.’”

Courtesy of Bethany Goralski

What these two sisters did are completely selfless acts. For sure, their father is looking down on them from heaven, feeling so proud of his daughters for having the courage to take a part of themselves and share it with other people – in the name of saving their lives.

Watch the video below via Good Morning America to know more about their selfless gesture.