“It’s been a lifelong journey, but what I really want for her is to be healthy and stay healthy,” Maria Velasquez said of her daughter.
Courtesy Kristen Schwicke
Kristen Schwicke was running out of options when her kidneys began to fail while pregnant with her second child last year. Luckily, hope came from someone close to home: her mom.
Maria Velasquez, 65, was a miracle match for her 33-year-old daughter, who had antibodies that gave her a high likelihood of rejecting nearly all other donor organs, said Nicole M. Ali, MD, medical director of kidney transplantation for the NYU Langone Transplant Institute.
“Her mother came forward and against all odds turned out to be a perfect match,” said Dr. Ali.
Schwicke learned she had kidney disease following her first pregnancy four years ago. The disease progressed to kidney failure, and she required dialysis treatment when she pregnant again. She went to the dialysis center six days a week for nearly four hours a day before she had her baby, then three days a week after the birth until her transplant. Velasquez helped care for her grandchildren during her dialysis time. Schwicke’s son, Benjamin, turned 4 years old on Mother’s Day, May 10, and her daughter, Eleanor, is now 10 months old.
Schwicke had developed a high level of antibodies due to a series of health challenges that started early in life. Dr. Ali said Schwicke had a 100 percent panel reactive antibody (PRA) test, indicating that the odds of finding a match are 1 out of every 46,000 potential donors, or less than 1 percent. In general, the chances of a mother matching with her child are about the same, so it truly was a match that defied all probability.
Schwicke’s son, Benjamin, turned 4 years old this Mother’s Day.
Courtesy Kristen Schwicke
“My whole life has been a miracle,” said Schwicke, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just 18 months old.
Velasquez had undergone testing for kidney donation last year and was determined to be a perfect match for Schwicke in December 2025. The transplant was delayed, however, due to Schwicke experiencing a cardiac condition. Velasquez said donating a kidney to her daughter was something she had prepared for her entire life. “I knew this day would come,” said Velasquez. “My whole life I have focused on keeping myself healthy—eating right and exercising—because I knew one day I would have to do this for her.”
When Schwicke was diagnosed with diabetes as a toddler, she began insulin injections and needed constant monitoring. Velasquez became used to being alert for her daughter: sleeping lightly so she could respond to the monitoring device beeping or untangle tubing from the monitors in the night.
“It’s been a lifelong journey, but what I really want for her is to be healthy and stay healthy,” she said.
“It’s such a relief. I’m looking forward to living life and not being so tired and being able to finally do things with my family and friends,” said Schwicke.
Courtesy Kristen Schwicke
Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, the H. Leon Pachter, MD, Professor of Surgery, chair of the , and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, performed the transplant on Schwicke. Lee C. Zhao, MD, a professor in the , performed a robotic donor nephrectomy on Velasquez. Following a successful operation on April 27, both Velasquez and Schwicke are back home on Long Island and recovering. They celebrated a Mother’s Day weekend unlike any other together with family, and are ready to begin a new life with more time to spend with loved ones.
“I’m so excited,” said Schwicke. “It’s such a relief. I’m looking forward to living life and not being so tired and being able to finally do things with my family and friends.”
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Colin DeVries
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