Two Pennsylvania women were brought together this week by a groundbreaking medical procedure and the baby girl whose life it made possible.
On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Emma Dolzal, 33, of York County, met Sara Leister, 40, of Lancaster County—the woman who donated her uterus so Dolzal could become a mother through Penn Medicine’s uterine transplant program.
The emotional meeting, captured exclusively by WGAL News 8 reporter Meredith Jorgensen, marked the first time Dolzal and Leister had seen each other in person. Between them was baby Olivia, the eighth child born through Penn Medicine’s uterine transplant program and a symbol of both medical innovation and human generosity.
Dolzal, a Black woman who was born without a uterus, had long feared she would never be able to carry a child. That changed when she learned about a clinical trial for uterine transplants at Penn Medicine. She was accepted into the program, and her path to motherhood began…