How Organ Donation Saved a Life at OU Health in a Race Against Time

Sierra Jackson of Norman, Oklahoma sat in her car in the OU Health parking lot, trying to breathe. She had just received difficult news from her doctor: She was being taken off the kidney transplant waiting list.

It was February 2026. Sierra had been on dialysis for more than a year, sitting for three mornings a week hooked to a machine that filtered her blood — drawing it from a vein in her arm; pumping it through a machine that cleaned it of waste, toxins, and extra fluid; then returning it to her body.

During that time, Sierra had done everything her kidney doctors asked. She lost weight. She ate right. In November 2025, she was placed on the waiting list for a new kidney. But just three months later, on that February morning, she was taken off the list because of a complication beyond her control.

The fistula in her arm, the small surgical connection that made dialysis possible, kept clotting shut. Her doctors put her on two blood thinners to keep it open. But those same medications made transplant surgery too dangerous.

At 49, with grandbabies at home, Sierra drove away from the hospital that day unsure how much longer her body could hold on.

Less than 24 hours later, her phone rang.

Her life was about to change, thanks to the OU Health Transplant Institute, part of OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's academic health system, and the decision of a close friend.

A Life Shaped by Illness

Sierra's kidneys had been quietly dying for most of her life.

She was 13 the first time anyone told her she had Type I diabetes, and her childhood was hard in a way that meant her prescriptions went unfilled. She did not start insulin until she was 21 and pregnant with her oldest son. By then, the damage was done.

Two years ago, an OU Health kidney specialist told her the truth about her situation. Her kidney function was crashing. A fistula was placed in her arm to prepare for dialysis — which she needed almost immediately.

For more than a year, Sierra sat in that dialysis chair three days a week. She couldn’t drink water the way other people do because her failing kidneys could no longer strip the excess fluid and waste from her blood. She couldn’t travel. She came home exhausted, slept all afternoon, and did it again two days later.

"So many of us going to that dialysis center … are waiting for a kidney," Sierra said. "We deserve to live."

A Friendship That Keeps Giving

At the same time, Sierra’s best friend of 13 years, Robin Davis, was facing her own tragedy. She made the hard decision to take her grown son off life support following a bilateral pulmonary embolism — blood clots in both lungs.

Sierra and Robin met in 2012 while working at a Braum's in Norman, Oklahoma. They hit it off right away: both had February birthdays and the kind of stubborn humor that gets a person through a hard shift. They celebrated their birthdays together and supported each other at work. When Robin's mother died, Sierra attended the funeral. After that, they were family.

"We just clicked," Sierra said.

Robin still works there, and although Sierra left the company five years ago, she stops by all the time. They’ve been there for each other through marriages, grandkids, and the slow work of growing older together side by side.

Sierra knew Robin's son, James — she used to serve him hamburgers when he came in for lunch. James never met a stranger, leaving a lasting impression on everyone he met. True to his nature, he was the person who convinced his mother to register as an organ donor.

"He said, 'Mom, you didn't hit that heart [on your driver’s license],'" Robin said. "'Think of all the lives you can save.' And that stuck in my head."

At the time, Robin had no way of knowing just how important organ donors can be.

A Destined Moment of Friendship and Healing

James was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 22, 2026, with blood clots in both lungs. By March 1, his family knew his prognosis was grave.

The day after Robin learned her son would not survive, she also learned that LifeShare, Oklahoma's organ donation organization, would honor his wishes. She remembered what James had told her about the heart on her license. She did not, in that first stunned hour, think of Sierra.

"I was just thinking about all the people he could save,” Robin said. “And then it dawned on me a couple of hours later: What about Sierra?"

She turned to the LifeShare representative in the room and asked a question she didn’t know was possible.

"I [said], I have a really good friend — can I give her my [son's] kidney?' I had no idea you could do that."

She could.

The process is called directed deceased donation, and it is rare. At OU Health Transplant Institute, the care team began working to make it possible.

Six Minutes to Spare

OU Health transplant surgeon Dr. Maheswaran Pitchaimuthu, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, was on call at 7 a.m. when he learned of Sierra’s situation.

He listened carefully to the details and knew the odds were not in her favor. Sierra was inactive on the transplant list and on two blood thinners. The kidney was coming from a directed deceased donor, which meant a half-dozen complicated factors all had to line up perfectly at the same time. Something that rarely happens.

Still, Dr. Pitchaimuthu believed Sierra deserved the chance.

"As a surgeon, I'll take that risk," he said. "I didn’t want her to be on dialysis, especially since she was already struggling with the fistula. …. We decided to go ahead and move forward."

For this type of organ donation to work, the donor's heart must stop within the narrow two-hour window after life support is withdrawn. The kidney itself must be the right size and quality. The donor's and recipient's blood must be compatible. Crossmatch testing must come back negative, meaning the recipient's body will not immediately reject the new organ.

"In this case, James passed at 1 hour, 54 minutes, just 6 minutes before the cutoff,” Dr. Pitchaimuthu said. “Everything happened in [Sierra’s] favor."

By 4 a.m. on March 4, Sierra's phone rang. By 7 a.m., Dr. Pitchaimuthu was transplanting James' kidney into his mother's best friend.

What a Kidney Transplant Means for the Rest of a Life

"Kidney transplant is a life-changing surgery," Dr. Pitchaimuthu said. "The freedom it gives people is everything."

Sierra notices that freedom in small ways. She can drink a glass of water without measuring it. She no longer spends Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings in a dialysis chair. She can sleep in her own bed and wake up to her grandchildren.

"It feels amazing," Sierra said. "It's a blessing."

She talks to James every day — sometimes when nobody is listening, and sometimes when they are. When grief rises up in her, she calls Robin and Robin always answers.

"I love Robin," Sierra said. "We'll have our friendship for the rest of our life."

OU Health Treats Patients Other Centers Cannot

The numbers tell only part of the story. The other part is who fills the operating rooms.

"We try to give access to people who don't have access," Dr. Pitchaimuthu said. "It’s not just kidney transplant. We are operating on the sickest of the sickest."

Patients considered too high risk by other programs walk out of OU Health's recovery wing barely recognizable to the surgeons who treated them.

Driving this work is OU Health’s tripartite mission: care for patients, research that advances the field, and education for the next generation of surgeons. Dr. Pitchaimuthu and his colleagues teach the residents who scrub in beside them, publish papers on organ preservation, and run clinical trials. The medical student who watches Sierra walk into a six-month follow-up visit, hugging the staff at the front desk, learns something no textbook can teach.

"You don't even recognize the patient when the transplant is successful," Dr. Pitchaimuthu said. "They become a completely different person. That gives you the biggest satisfaction, and that is [what] keeps us going."

Hit That Heart on Your Driver’s License

Robin had no way of knowing that the small red heart on a person’s driver’s license would one day save her best friend — and help save others.

James' kidney went to Sierra. Other people also received the life-saving gift of his organs.

In Oklahoma, registering as an organ donor takes less than a minute. One donor can save up to eight lives and improve many more through tissue donation.

Robin posts about her son on Facebook. She watches the comments fill up with friends and strangers saying they have registered, too. Her son is gone, but in a sense, he is living inside the body of the woman who used to make him a hamburgers for lunch.

"It does help with the grieving," Robin said.

Even after his death, James found a way to take care of others — including his mom’s best friend.

Learn more about the OU Health Transplant Institute or register to become an organ donor in Oklahoma by visiting LifeShareOklahoma.org