A Florida woman desperately needed a kidney, and she found her match on the popular dating app Tinder.
"I didn’t realize how sick I felt until after I woke up and they put her kidney in me, and it was just like I felt like my old self again," said Erika Bragen.
Bragen left the hospital after surgery just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family, and with a woman who is now a part of her family.
"I’m so thankful for my family of course and my friends,” said Bragen. “I think my kids are thankful that I hopefully will be back to normal.”
Bragen suffers from polycystic kidney disease.
She found her kidney match, Jennifer Thomas, thanks to her friend swiping right on Tinder.
"I hope that they’ll keep me ’cause I love everyone that I’ve gotten to meet through this whole experience,” said Thomas. “It’s really changed my life".
The miracle created through the app has now turned into a special friendship.
"Through a tinder blind date, of all things- it was a connection, but it was a connection about hope and about saving a life,” said Bragen’s husband Scott.
And now together they want to continue helping other people who suffer from the same disease, through Team Tampa PKD.
"Not only do we have today to be thankful for Erika and all of this that’s happened, but more people are waking up [and] they want to help and that is everything I ever wanted,” said Thomas.
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