A group of best friends in Orange County are now physically connected by sharing kidneys.
Debbie Thompson and Christine Morales have been friends since 3rd grade. After going to elementary, junior high and high schools together, the duo even shared an apartment together.
Their lives continued to mirror each other’s in adulthood as Christine married her husband, Ron, in the early 1980s just a year before Debbie married her husband, Brad. The Thompsons have three sons and one daughter just like the Morales family.
“Her family is my family,” Debbie Thompson describes. “Togetherness is all the time to this day. Inseparable to this day.”
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Even a health crisis could not break the best friends’ bond. When Christine went into kidney failure in 2015, she shared to Debbie that she needed a kidney transplant.
“I told Debbie it’s time [to get a kidney transplant],” Christine Morales recalls. “Then she said, ‘I’ll give you my kidney.’ Just like that. Debbie never hesitated.”
7 years after Christine received a kidney from Debbie through operations at Cedar Sinai, Ron Morales also had kidney failure. After almost losing him a couple of times, this time another member of the Thompson family stepped up: Brad, Debbie’s husband.
“[Ron] needed it, and I had a spare,” Brad Thompson says nonchalantly. “I said he can have it.”
After the second kidney surgery between the two families, the two patriarchs say they feel better than before. And the best friends have greater appreciation for each other.
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“We are one now. Two couples made into one,” Christine explains tearfully. “[The Thompsons] saved our lives. They gave us our second chance. They don’t understand how much we appreciate them and love them to death.”
The Thompsons say there was no reason to hesitate giving their kidneys to Christine and Ron.
“Just to see their lives back to normal for them, it means the world to me, really,” Debbie says.
“I’m happy it all worked out,” Brad adds. “It was nothing for me.”
The two couples hope their stories can encourage others to give “a gift of life” and donate organs to others because they say ‘nothing has changed’ since the transplant operations.
“I feel stronger and better than I used to be,” Brad says.
“I took some weight from you,” Ron jokingly responds and breaks out into laughter.
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