After years of battling kidney failure and surviving countless dialysis treatments, Monica Fox of Chicago is alive today because of one extraordinary gift — a kidney from her own daughter, Olivia.
What began as what she thought was a simple sinus infection in 2013 turned into a life-altering diagnosis of chronic kidney disease. Within months, Monica’s kidneys were failing.
“It was shocking,” she told Fox 32 Chicago. “I went from feeling fine to being told I’d need dialysis to stay alive.”
Dialysis became her lifeline, but it was grueling — hours tethered to machines several times a week, with no guarantee of long-term survival. Still, Monica remained hopeful, telling herself that one day a transplant would come.
Her first chance arrived in 2016, when she received a donor kidney. But after contracting COVID pneumonia in 2022, her transplanted kidney failed. Suddenly, she was back where she started, hooked up to a machine, waiting.
“I knew there was still hope,” Monica said. “I just had to believe another chance would come.”
That chance came from her daughter, Olivia — not for the first time.
A Daughter’s Gift of Life
Olivia had been tested as a donor once before, back in 2015, just before graduating from college. At the time, Monica refused to let her only daughter undergo such a serious procedure.
“I didn’t want her to sacrifice something so big,” Monica said.
But this time, Olivia insisted. Working as a Transplant Outreach Coordinator at the University of Illinois Hospital, she’d seen firsthand how transformative living organ donation could be.
“This was kind of my chance to put my kidney where my mouth is,” she said. “Now I’m living proof that it works.”
Her decision saved her mother’s life.
The Operation That Changed Everything
The transplant surgery, performed at UI Health by Dr. Ivo Tzvetanov, was a success. Both women are now recovering and regaining strength.
“She underwent surgery for the sole purpose of saving my life,” Monica said. “Even when she was sick and in pain after surgery, she told me, ‘Mom, I’d do it all over again for you.’”
Doctors say transplants from living donors nearly double the survival rate compared to dialysis patients, and recovery outcomes tend to be better for both donor and recipient. Olivia’s donation didn’t just save a life, it restored a sense of normalcy to a family that had spent years living around hospital visits and uncertainty.
Paying It Forward
Today, Monica continues her mission as the Senior Director of Outreach at the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, using her story to educate others about organ donation and the health disparities affecting African Americans.
Black Americans make up more than 35% of people on dialysis in the U.S., yet they are less likely to receive kidney transplants compared to white patients — a disparity Monica now speaks about publicly.
“I’ve lived this,” she said. “And if my story can help another family find hope or encourage someone to become a donor, then it’s worth every scar and every struggle.”
For Monica and Olivia, the experience has deepened an already unbreakable bond.
“This isn’t just a medical miracle,” Monica said. “It’s a love story — a mother and daughter saving each other in more ways than one.”
