How to donate

for ill and premature newborns. But a recent selfless act benefited the husband of a co-worker, when she gave him her kidney.

Martins and Helene Molino, a unit secretary in the pediatric intensive care unit at Broward Health, had never met before the organ donation.

In late 2019, Molino posted on Facebook that her husband Frank, then 58, and a longtime supervisor of Parks and Recreation for the city of Coral Springs, was desperate for a kidney.

Martins saw the social media post and was moved to act.

“I didn’t even know that living donors was a thing, but he reminded me a lot of my dad, and I would want somebody to do that for my dad,” she said. “I felt compelled. I can’t explain it. I felt like it was that thing I was supposed to do to make my time here worth it.”

Martins was tested for blood type and antibodies and learned that she was a good match for Molino.

More testing followed, including a kidney function test and a complete physical. Surgery was scheduled at AdventHealth Orlando, then delayed because of the pandemic. For months,

Martins and the Molinos talked over the phone, but never met — not until just before the surgery in October 2020.

“We literally talked all the time,” Helene Molino said. “I had never met this girl and I felt the connection immediately.”

A single mother to a son, Odin, 5, Martins said she initially wanted to keep the organ donation quiet. “I didn’t want to feel guilty if I wasn’t able to donate or something went wrong,” she said. Martins said she didn’t want to hear feedback that she was crazy or that she was an angel.

“I wasn’t doing it for that,” she said.

When Martins and the Molinos did meet shortly before the surgery, it was an emotional experience for everyone.

“Everybody was crying. It was just the most beautiful thing,” Martins said. She said the enormity of it really hit her seeing Frank in the hotel room hooked up to dialysis.

“My life is so busy and crazy I didn’t realize how his had been — just waiting, waiting and hooked up to a dialysis machine seven days a week,” she said. “I thought this is happening. This is the last day he’s ever going to be hooked up to a machine. To be able to give that to somebody feels great.”

After the surgery, Martins and the Molinos stayed together in a timeshare in Orlando. Helene took care of both of them.

Helene Molino said she still can’t believe it happened. “She definitely is an angel,” Molino said. “I get choked up every time I talk about it. It’s like I have another daughter.”

Back in South Florida, Helene looked in on Martins during her recovery. Martins’ coworkers started a meal train and helped get her son to school. “It was a whole community effort and it was just the most amazing thing,” Martins said.

Martins and the Molinos have become like family. They spent the holidays together as well as Frank’s 59th birthday, and they recently went to Disney on Ice. For their one-year anniversary, they plan to do a Disney trip.

Frank Molino said he is feeling great, and so thankful that Martins came into his life. “She’s just an incredible person…I mean, God dropped an angel in my lap,” he said. “Just knowing her makes me be a better person.”

Martins said she wants to educate others about living organ donation.

“If I had three kidneys,” she said. “I would donate another one.”

Courtesy of Valerie Salnave Valerie Salnave, an oncology nurse at Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida, with her two daughters, Anais, 17, and McKenzie, 5. Salnave donated part of her liver to a stranger in need. Most organ and tissue donations occur after the donor has died. But some organs and tissues, including the liver, kidney and lung, can be donated while the donor is alive. Nearly 6,000 living donations take place each year. That’s about four out of every 10 donations, according to organdonor.gov, the U.S. government’s organ donation site. For information about living donation, transplant centers and the transplant process, contact the United Network for Organ Sharing, the federal contractor that manages the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. The number is 888-894-6361.

Courtesy Baptist Health South Florida Michelle Bernado, a nurse in the neonatal ICU at South Miami Hospital, with Lori Livingston, whom she cared for eight months, beginning in 2019. Photo was shot pre-pandemic.