NBC 5 anchor Kristi Nelson successfully donated a kidney to her mother Thursday morning.
Details of the surgery were Tweeted live by NBC 5's Deborah Ferguson, who was the first television reporter to live-tweet during a kidney transplant.
Deborah was with Kristi as doctors removed her kidney laparoscopically, then followed surgeons to a nearby operating room where they implanted the healthy kidney into her mother, Helen.
Kristi's surgery began at 7:30 a.m., and she was on her way to recovery by 10:30 a.m. Her kidney was working in Helen by 10:45 a.m.
"Kristi's mom now has a functioning kidney, donated by her daughter!" Deborah tweeted.
Both Kristi and Helen were doing very well Thursday night.
"It will be remembered as one of the most blessed days in my life," Helen said.
Kristi said the experience was a life-changing moment for her and her mother.
"I'm not sure what that means," she said. "For her, I think it means she will have a much more comfortable life. She'll be a lot more mobile and hopefully a lot happier. For me, it's life-changing as well, but I don't know what that means just yet. I do know I feel great about being able to help her in this way."
Kristi became Baylor Health's 798th living donor. Surgeons performed the 799th kidney transplant on Thursday afternoon.
You can follow Deborah's Twitter updates by using the hashtag #kristisgift. You don’t have to be Twitter-savvy, just check out the widget below for Deborah’s updates to Kristi’s incredible gift. (Comments from anyone using that hashtag also appear)
For more on Kristi's Gift, living donors, kidney disease and other resources, click here to access our special section.
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NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
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