TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Valentine’s Day is widely known as a celebration of love, but it also marks National Donor Day, a time to honor organ donors and the lives they save.
For one Tallahassee family, the day is deeply personal.
They are sharing how a young woman’s final decision transformed unimaginable heartbreak into hope and created a bond that will last a lifetime.
“I was shaking hands with death. I really did think that it was it,” said organ transplant recipient Kris Vanni.
Vanni said her health crisis began with what seemed like a routine case of the flu. While her husband recovered, her condition rapidly worsened.
“I ended up getting blood clots in my lungs, and I just went downhill from there; all of my organs started shutting down,” Vanni said.
Doctors quickly ran out of options. She was transferred from her local hospital to Orlando, and then to the Mayo Clinic, where she waited for what she describes as a miracle.
“And it was right in time that I got that call,” Vanni said. “And Aimee saved my life. I mean, it was a miracle.”
That miracle came from Aimee Nicole Sachs.
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In 2023, Sachs became critically ill after suffering two strokes, leaving her in a rare condition known as locked-in syndrome, meaning she could no longer move or speak but remained fully conscious.
Her father, Ron Sachs, says Aimee had been registered as an organ donor for years. But after her stroke, she reaffirmed that choice.
“Do you want to, when you leave this world, help other people live?” Ron Sachs recalled asking his daughter. “And she shut her eyes again.”
Aimee’s organs saved three lives.
“Her two kidneys were transplanted into two young men in their 20s who are alive today because of Aimee,” Sachs said. “And then the liver was a match for Kris.”
What followed was something neither family expected.
“We became family, like, pretty quickly,” Vanni said. “You go in so nervous, wondering what they’re going to think of you. But our families just clicked. There was no weirdness between us.”
Now recovering, Vanni said she’s focused on the moments she nearly lost forever.
“That’s the ultimate gift, being able to watch my boys eventually get married and graduate high school and all the fun things that I would have missed out on,” she said.
On National Donor Day, Sachs said his daughter’s legacy is a powerful reminder of the impact one person can have.
“One person can save many lives and enhance them,” he said.
According to Donate Life Florida, more than 5,000 people across the state are waiting each day for a life-saving transplant.
You can register to be an organ donor in just minutes, on their website, at your local tax collector’s office, or when renewing a hunting or fishing license.
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