These lifelong friendships turned into life-saving ones.
Christine “Chris” Morales and Debbie Thompson say they have been best friends since they were young girls growing up in California — and have continued to stay close in the decades since.
The two bonded during high school cheerleading practice, moved into their first adult apartment together and stood by each other in their weddings.
“We got married a year apart. We got engaged a year apart,” Morales told ABC News. “We’ve just done everything together.”
Then a medical scare threatened to end their time together.
In 2015, Morales revealed she had been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that had slowly damaged her kidneys. She was in need of a transplant from a compatible donor.
Thompson said she jumped at the chance to help.
“I said, ‘Well, you can have mine!'” she recalled to ABC News. “I didn’t even know what the process was.”
“I just don’t work without Chris,” Thompson told CBS News.
Thompson took tests to determine if she could be Morales’ donor, and much to their delight, the lifelong best friends discovered they were a blood match.
Six months later, the women successfully underwent the difficult procedure at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “She calls the kidney ‘Little Deb!'” Thompson said. “She always says ‘Little Deb’ is doin’ good.”
Chris, Debbie, and their respective husbands, Ron Morales and Brad Thompson, happily resumed planning their futures together when a similar scare arose in 2020. This time Ron, who has Type 2 diabetes, was told he would need a kidney transplant.
Like his wife had done, Ron initially tried to hide his health scares from the Thompsons, but the terrifying secret eventually came out. Inspired by their wives’ story, Brad immediately reached out to Ron.
“He called me up over the phone and said, ‘Hey, I hear you need some extra body parts,'” Ron recalled.
The two men underwent testing, and although they were not exact matches, they were approved for the procedure also at Cedars-Sinai. Ron reportedly needed to get blood transfusions to prepare his immune system to not reject the new kidney.
Ron was also given a few directives from Brad. “I said, ‘You can’t call it ‘Little Brad,’ and you can’t bring me flowers on the anniversary like Chris does.'”
This foursome has a friendship like no other — and now they have the matching scars to prove it.
Last year alone, nearly 25,000 Americans received kidney transplants — a new record, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. The organization announced in September that the US achieved its 1 millionth organ transplant — more than any other country in the world.