Madison Greer, a firefighter with the Phoenix Fire Department, donated one of her kidneys to her husband, Surprise firefighter Robert Coleman Jr., after he was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease in 2025. The couple, married in September 2025, are now recovering together from the surgery and say they hope to return to work once they’ve fully healed.
Coleman’s diagnosis came as a shock, and he required dialysis in 2025 as his kidney function declined, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Greer applied to become his donor, and testing determined she was a direct match, meaning Coleman could bypass a paired donor exchange or the long wait most patients face. Coleman told the station his wife had given him “a second chance at life.”
Greer recalled telling him he would feel better within a day of the transplant, per the outlet’s report drawn from interviews with the couple and a family GoFundMe page. Coleman’s family started that GoFundMe campaign to help cover medical expenses tied to his treatment and recovery.
A Rare Match in a State Short on Living Donors
Being a direct compatible match without needing a paired exchange is statistically uncommon: roughly 1 in 4 potential living donors match their intended recipient outright, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Matching requires blood type compatibility, tissue typing, and a negative antibody crossmatch, all of which lined up for Greer and Coleman…