“There’s different ways to donate,” said Sarah Ashton Brantley, a registered nurse and transplant coordinator at AdventHealth Porter in Denver. “The way that Elena donated is through something called a standard voucher … Instead of donating directly to your recipient, you donate to someone else, then you list your intended recipient on a voucher.”

Following the donation, “the recipient’s voucher gets activated in the system for a living donor,” she said.

Moyer’s wife did a similar paired exchange 20 years ago, as she was not a compatible match for him. Rather than waiting seven to 10 years for a cadaver’s kidney, if Hershey donated her kidney to a stranger and gave her voucher to Moyer, he would be able to get a kidney from a live donor within a year.

Hershey loved the idea, and the fact that she’d be able to help two people in the process.

“It’s kind of like planting two trees with one seed,” she said.

Hershey had a nephrectomy on July 3 at AdventHealth Porter, and donated her kidney to an anonymous recipient. Within two weeks, Hershey said, she was exercising again.

“I haven’t found a downside to donating,” Hershey said. “If it’s something I can do that I have extra of, why wouldn’t I want to help somebody?”

“If anything, my quality of life has improved,” she added, explaining that being a donor has been immensely fulfilling.

While Hershey recovered from the operation, Moyer and his wife sent her flowers and checked in regularly.

“She’s just an amazingly generous person,” Moyer said of Hershey, with whom he reunited in-person about a week before her surgery. “She was very serious about trying to help somebody else, which you don’t hear about every day.”

After months of waiting, Moyer got the much-anticipated call on Feb. 13 from his transplant clinic that a kidney from an anonymous living donor was available. His surgery was Feb. 20 at UPMC Harrisburg.

“Because of Elena’s generosity and willingness to do that … I ended up with a match that was exceptional,” Moyer said.

When he got the good news, Hershey was the first person he called.

“I got really emotional, because it’s coming full-circle and the system really works,” Hersey said. “This is such a rewarding feeling, to go through that with him.”

Moyer’s surgery went well, and he’s now recovering at home. He and Hershey are regularly in touch. They both said they’re bonded for life.

“This was an easy surgery, it was an easy recovery … it costs nothing to donate; the recipient’s insurance covers everything,” Hershey said. “I would do it again if I had another extra kidney.”

Hershey hopes their story inspires people to consider organ donation - or other ways of supporting those who could use help.

“Each of us can contribute small acts of compassion that can create profound ripple effects,” she said.

In the end, Moyer said, his high school prom date’s decision to bail might have been one of the best things to ever happen to him.

“You never know, do you?” Moyer said.

organ donation

37 years later, his prom date saves his life