A Missouri daughter gave her old man the shock of a lifetime when she defied him and secretly donated her kidney to him.
John Ivanowski, who suffers from a form of kidney disease, relied on a dialysis machine every couple of days for about five hours each time. While daughter Delayne, 25, urged him to let her donate her organ to improve his health and quality of life, he kept saying no, according to reports.
“I’m like, ‘You’re too young, you’ve got a long time to be here and my time’s limited’,” the stubborn 60-year-old father told KMOV.
But Delayne’s persistence was too much to overcome, and she began the process of donating behind his back.
She told the news station she reached out to his coordinator, and once her father was in good enough shape for the transplant, they began running tests on her to make sure she was a match.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to do it. I don’t care how mad he is at me. I don’t care if he kicks me out of the house or hates me or doesn’t say a word to me for the rest of my life,’” the nurse told ABC News. “At least he’ll be living a good life and not hooked up to a machine.”
The gift from daughter to father took place with John unaware until the surgery was done and she came walking through his hospital room door the next day.
The heartwarming moment was filmed and posted to TikTok by Delayne that showed her father in complete shock when she walked in.
“Oh my God, are you kidding me,” he said as began to get choked up. “I knew you were up to something.”
John’s objections were in part due to a tragedy the family endured when his son died 16 years ago from neuroblastoma, a type of cancer, ABC News reported. But a doctor told the outlet there is no greater risk to the health of a living donor than if they hold onto all their organs.
Delayne posted the tear-jerking footage on social media in hopes of raising funds to cover the transplant.
She asked for $6,000 to cover surgery expenses; as of Tuesday night more than $10,000 was raised.
Any anger John initially held has disappeared now that he no longer needs dialysis.
“I wouldn’t change a thing. I feel so much better,” he told ABC News.