Father, daughter celebrate 2-year kidney donation anniversary

ATLANTA - Dawn Daniels Muhammad shared photos taken after a recent doctors visit, on the two year anniversary of Lucious Daniels life-saving kidney transplant.

"It's been great, just being able to spend time with the family, being able to work around the house like I did at one time", Mr. Daniels told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes. 

Daniels and his daughter Dawn underwent transplant surgery at Piedmont Hospital in 2018. She received great news during her annual checkup last week. 

"That was my last visit after two years. You do not have to go back as a donor. It was an emotional visit for us as we came together and celebrated being able to donate to my dad."

It marked a major milestone for the Fayette County family, the latest leg of a journey that began in 2016 when doctors diagnosed  Daniels  with stage 4 kidney failure. He was placed on the transplant waiting list, and began dialysis. 

That December, after learning her blood type might make her a donor match for her dad,  but her BMI was too high to be a candidate for organ donation, Muhammad embarked on a private wellness journey, telling no one of her plan to lose weight in hopes of saving her dad's life. 

Over the next 16 months she lost  55 pounds, 30 inches. Muhammad dropped four dress sizes, going from a size 20 to a 14. Only then did she reveal to her father why she really lost the weight. The famly was overjoyed in July of 2018 when doctors determined Dawn was a perfect donor match. 

Muhammad now serves as a volunteer mentor with the Georgia Transplant Foundation.  

"One of the  things that we encourage is to learn more about the process, understand the process of being able to donate an organ, the steps that takes the resources that are out there.  If you know someone who needs an organ like a kidney, then there are resources out there to help you understand what that process is."