Mom Donates Kidney to Daughter—Then They Graduate Nursing School Together

BATON ROUGE, La. — Ambrealle Brown had to put her plans to become a nurse on hold for years because she had a kidney disease that was killing her and took away her ability to do things.

Brown was having doubts about whether she could ever live a normal life again when her mother stepped in and offered to give her kidney. Doctors did Louisiana’s first robotic kidney donation, which gave Brown a second chance at life and allowed Nija Butler to see her daughter do well.

After almost two years, the mother and daughter from Louisiana went on another trip together. They wore white caps and gowns and crossed the stage together in Baton Rouge to finish nursing school.

“We tell our kids all the time, ‘We would die for you,’ but they don’t always understand that,” Butler, 48, said. “I would have done anything to save her life.” Without giving it a second thought, I really mean that.

In an interview with The Associated Press last month, the two women talked about their journey together and the problems they’ve solved.

The mother and daughter from Louisiana have always been nice to each other. Butler had her daughter while she was still in high school, so the two of them grew up together. She worked hard to raise her daughter and son, and Brown wanted to become a nurse.

Everything changed for Brown when he was told in 2016 that he had Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a rare kidney disease that can lead to kidney failure. Her outlook quickly got worse. Brown was taking classes to get ready for nursing school when she felt her legs get so tight that she couldn’t move.

Soon after, Brown’s doctor told him bad news: to stay alive, Brown would need to start dialysis or get a kidney donation. A person in the U.S. may have to wait anywhere from two to five years or even longer for a kidney transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Brown wished very much for a new kidney. But while she waited for news of a transfer, she had to start dialysis, which she had to do every day for nine to thirteen hours. Brown couldn’t do many things every day, and she had to quit school.

Butler said she saw a change in her normally happy daughter after years of dialysis.

As Butler thought back to a phone call with her daughter, “it was like she wanted to give up.” “Her whole life was boring because she was always hooked up to a tube.”

Butler made an appointment to get tested the next day, even though doctors had already told her she probably wasn’t a good match to be a kidney donor for her daughter. She didn’t tell her daughter because she didn’t want to raise her dreams in case it wasn’t going to work out.

Soon after, Brown heard the news she had been waiting five years for: she was going to get a new kidney. She told her mum over the phone, but her mum already knew. Brown asked her mum how she knew that, which made her feel silly.

“That’s me,” Butler said.

In March 2023, they had surgery. Doctors from Tulane University School of Medicine used a robotic surgical system to do the first kidney exchange in the state. The practice gives more accuracy so that the procedure is minimally invasive. This is done so that the patient will feel less pain and recover faster.

After the surgery went well, Brown turned her attention back to school. Her mum also chose to get her licence to be a qualified nurse.

They were joined at the hip for 16 months. They went to school together, sat together, and finished from the Baton Rouge General School of Nursing together in April.

Brown, 34, said, “I couldn’t have done it without her because nursing school is hard.” “It made me happy to be able to share that important moment with her.”

Brown has taken a job at an intensive care unit for burns, and Butler is keeping her job at a mental health facility.

The women want their story to encourage others to never give up and to raise knowledge about how important medical tests are and how the donor and transplant process works.

Brown told her mother, “Thank you for giving me life twice.” “I have to say that over and over because you gave me a second chance, and not many people get that.”

With no pause, Butler wiped away a tear and said, “And I would do it again.”