CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — It’s a story of selfless generosity that traveled the entire length of the country, and ended at VCU Health. A Washington State woman, inspired by her military family, donated a kidney to a Navy veteran she had never met, giving him a renewed lease on life.
For 67-year-old retired veteran James Ellis, who served 20 years as a helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Navy, life in Maryland for the past several years meant being tied to dialysis — in need of a kidney transplant.
“I did all the different types of dialysis. I did the PD where they put the tube into your stomach and you know pump the fluid in you and drain it out,” Ellis said.
After waiting on the living donor list, his prayers were answered in spring 2025.
“April came and I get a phone call that morning and it was the DOVE program saying, ‘We have a kidney for you.’ I thought it was a dream and everything,” Ellis said…