When this regular customer stepped inside Hooters, the last thing he expected to get from one of their newly hired waitresses something much more than he ever bargained for. Now, the waitress is being hailed a hero for her selfless act.
We’ve all heard stories about the power of human compassion, but this one is truly remarkable. Mariana Villarreal, a waitress at a Hooters in Roswell, Georgia has stepped up to the plate and offered to save someone’s life. Her selfless act is an inspiring example of what it means to have true inner beauty and pay it forward.
Don Thomas had been going to that location for quite some time, but it wasn’t the beer or chicken wings that kept him coming back. Word spread throughout the restaurant about his dire situation; he had lost both kidneys due to cancer and his wife had also died from cancer.
Without a transplant, he would be on dialysis indefinitely – unable to live life as he once did before.
That’s when Mariana decided she wanted to help – even though she hadn’t known Don well at all until then. Approaching him at his table one day, she offered him her own kidney without hesitation. “I said ‘Well I have two kidneys; do you want one of mine?’” she recalled.
Mariana was determined not only because Don needed help, but also because her grandmother passed away due to kidney failure too and she felt like this was her chance to make a difference in another person’s life instead of helplessly standing by again like before.
The surgery was successful and both donor and recipient recovered just fine thanks to their bond formed in the last place anybody would ever expect. According Dr Harrison Pollinger, one of the program directors of the Piedmont Transplant Institute “You can live your whole life with just one kidney; you only need one kidney for normal kidney function.”
Now Don Thomas will get a new lease on life after being inspired by Mariana’s selflessness – something we rarely see today. And through their story they hope others are encouraged enough to donate organs themselves too.
