A video of a woman surprising her sorority sister as a match for a kidney donation has gone viral after making the rounds online.
As of Tuesday, the video had accumulated nearly 1 million views on TikTok alone with hundreds of thousands of likes and more than a thousand comments.
"I'm still in complete & utter shock…I FOUND MY MATCH!!!!" Jess Hause wrote in the caption of her TikTok post, which featured a video of her friend Megan Schultz of Columbus, Ohio, breaking the news to her. "I couldn't have prayed for anyone better. She's one of my best friends from college, my sorority sister & friend of 18 years and is now family. We lived together, traveled together and had the time of our lives together in college."
She continued, "I'm speechless of her courage, strength, selflessness & pure heart. I'm so incredibly lucky to have so many amazing memories with her through college and now on this journey we will go through together. She is forever my hero, and the type of person I aspire to become. She is saving my life and I am forever grateful."
In an interview with "Good Morning America," Hause said she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease late last year after experiencing some physical changes.
"I noticed my knees started going numb, like, my knee down my leg," she recalled. "And I stopped urinating, my hands started going numb, and it was just super lethargic, sleeping all the time."
After going to the hospital, Hause said she was diagnosed with the disease and told to start dialysis immediately.
Hause, who was living in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the time, decided to move back to her parents' house in Cincinnati to get extra help.
Former rival becomes kidney donor for Maryland man"I needed caretakers through this new journey," she said.
She said her doctors also explained to her about the option and the benefit of finding a live donor and offered to help get the word out.
"I just instantly thought of social media, like, 'What's the best way to get the word out the quickest?'" Hause recalled.
She said she later began posting videos on TikTok and Instagram showing her daily routine, her life in dialysis, and working out, among other things.
Hause said she wanted to show the public that living life while on dialysis is "not all doom and gloom, that you can still be positive and still have a somewhat of a normal life and be going through this."
In January, Hause said she shared a post discussing kidney donation, and Schultz reached out immediately, saying, "I don't know if it's for you or your family, but I want to help, I want to be tested."
"So, I let her know [the donation] was for me," Hause said, adding that Schultz "started the testing process right after I talked to her."
Schultz told "GMA" she was scrolling through social media when she saw Hause's post about kidney donation.
"I knew her and I had met her family in college. And I just loved all of them," she said. "And I have learned a bit about live donation over the years just reading some articles, listening to podcasts. And I always thought, 'Wow, that's something I could do,' but I'd never follow through on it. And then when I saw Jess' post, I was like, 'Wow, this is the time -- like, I have a great job right now, I'm in a great spot ... I can do this. And I want to do this for her.'"
Schultz said she underwent testing and other procedures to become a donor at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati but kept things quiet.
"The day of the video was the day I found out I was a full match," she said. "And as soon as I found out, I immediately just started crying. I was in my office at work, just crying. And I was like, I immediately want to get home and get my husband home so we can call Jess. It was just such a good feeling."
Hause's transplant surgery is currently scheduled for Nov. 12. Until then, Hause and Schultz said they still have a few appointments to attend, and they plan to document their journey together to spread awareness about organ donation.
"It's a little bit time consuming," Hause said of the donation process, "but ... it's such a wonderful thing. And just I'm proof that it saves a life. Megan is saving my life."
Hause and Schultz also acknowledged that their longtime bond makes their experience "10 times greater."
"It's one of my best friends. It's my sorority sister, one of my roommates, which makes it even more special," Hause said.
