When Carolyn Nowotny decided to give her kidney to her younger sister in 1986, the practice was only a few decades young. In fact until then, a Tarrant County hospital had never performed the operation.
The decision was a no-brainer for the family. Without the kidney, Nowotny’s sister, Marilyn Patterson, now 76, would not live very long. “I figured God gave me two kidneys. I’ve got a spare,” Nowotny joked.
Still, Nowotny remembers keeping her expectations realistic…