NJ Senator Paves Way For Woman To Receive Life-Saving Kidney From Mom
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NEW JERSEY (CBSMiami) – A New Jersey woman finally has a new kidney, and the journey started with a Craigslist's post and ended with the help of a senator.
Nina Saria's story first made news a little over a year ago after a life-saving transplant fell apart at the last minute.
She found a kidney donor on Craigslist.
But when the original plan didn't work, the next best option was half a world away.
When we first met Saria in 2015, she was getting ready for surgery.
Glenn Calderbank had responded to her husband's post on Craigslist.
She said she was looking forward to coming off dialysis and spending more time with her son.
"It's a dream and it's not real," she said.
And she was right. The dream didn't become real – at least not then.
There were complications.
Surgeons halted the operation shortly after it had begun over concerns about the state of Calderbank's organs.
Saria had found another match in her mother. But there was a problem.
Her mom lived half a world away in the country of Georgia.
The feds on multiple occassions rejected the family's visa request.
"When mother goes in and says, 'I'm going to save my daughter,' and you tell her, 'I know it's an emergency but I'm sorry I cannot let you go,' you know, what can you say?" Saria said.
Sen. Bob Menendez got involved.
"When you have an American citizen's life who is depending upon this visa, then that should call for a higher level of engagement and not a checklist," he said.
Menendez helped the family qualify for "humanitarian parole."
It's a step federal immigration officials describe as "an extraordinary measure" which allows foreigners to enter the U.S. "for a temporary period due to a compelling emergency."
One year to the day after her original transplant fell through, Saria was back in the same hospital.
This time she entered with her mother and left with a new kidney.
"That was a day when I looked up and said, 'Thank God!'" Saria said.
Calderbank, the original craigslist donor says he's in good health and that he couldn't be happier that Saria's long wait for a new kidney is over.
