HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) – A woman in need received a kidney donation from an unlikely place: her identical twin sister.<\/p>\n
Jennefer Acosta, a transplant recipient, said that her life has been a challenge since childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and with that came the complications of my kidneys,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jessenia Acosta, her twin sister who flew in from California to donate her kidney, shared her perspective on her sister\u2019s medical issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, she\u2019s always had a lot of medical issues,\u201d said Jessenia.<\/p>\n
At the age of four, doctors told Jennefer\u2019s parents that only half her kidneys worked, and that she would eventually need a kidney transplant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would get checked, and then it just kept declining at every doctor\u2019s appointment,\u201d Jennefer said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the day that they both anticipated arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer kidneys were not functioning really well based on our underlying diagnoses and lifelong issues, and so she was really in need of a transplant,\u201d said Dr. Linda Chen, chief kidney transplant surgeon at Memorial Transplant Institute.<\/p>\n
Chen said the surgery was considered a special case because the donor and receiver were identical twins.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we have identical twin transplants, which is very special because it means they come from the same egg that split in utero, and it means they have the same genetic code,\u201d she said. \u201cThe recipient doesn\u2019t need to take immunosuppression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transplant was a success thanks to the surgeons at Memorial Regional Hospital.<\/p>\n
Jessenia said that she never hesitated to do the transplant, and that she was happy to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think until now that I\u2019m seeing my sister bounce back and just get life again, I feel really happy I can help with that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Thanks to her, Jennefer is feeling better and full of life and love for the person that gave her a second chance at life.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing that I have my sister\u2019s kidney is very unique to me because it\u2019s something special that I wouldn\u2019t think I would ever have,\u201d said Jennefer.<\/p>\n
The doctors said that Jennefer\u2019s kidneys were not removed, since the transplant was in a different place in the pelvis.<\/p>\n
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