Paramedic Saves Man’s Life, Donates Kidney to His Daughter Years Later: 'Like Having a Guardian Angel'
"I saved your dad, I'm going to save you, too," Molly Jones remembers Kristi Hadfield telling her
Courtesy Bob Hadfield
Molly Jones, John Cunningham and Kristi HadfieldNearly seven years ago, Kristi Hadfield was a paramedic who saved a man’s life when he was having a heart attack. Just months ago, she gave his daughter a kidney, saving her life too.
“I'm eternally grateful,” Molly Jones, 42, from Pennsboro, West Virginia, tells PEOPLE. “It's like having a guardian angel.”
The two women now talk and text every day. "We are connected forever," says Hadfield.
"She's family, she's absolute family," Jones agrees.
While driving to work at a local bar in August 2016, retired police officer John Cunningham, now 72, didn’t feel right and stopped at a nearby EMS station.
Hadfield remembers checking his vitals and running an EKG. She asked if he had any history of heart problems and when he said no, she replied, "You do now."
“It looked from the EKG like he was actively having a heart attack," she says.
As the ambulance drove him to a hospital 30 minutes away, he went into cardiac arrest, and Hadfield, now 56, performed chest compressions until he got there. Fortunately, they "were able to get him back," she says.
Courtesy Bob Hadfield
Kristy Hadfield and John CunninghamSince Hadfield has a habit of checking in on patients, one day she sent him a friend request on Facebook. Instantly, she got a message from his daughter.
"I had been trying to hunt down the person who saved my dad," says Jones. "I needed to know why I still had a dad. I needed to know who saved him.
As it turned out, that friend request would be a life-saving connection for her as well.
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Jones has autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a genetic condition that her mother and grandmother also had, and as she got sicker, her doctor urged her to look for a living donor.
Although she found it hard to ask for help, on July 7, 2022, she shared on Facebook that she was officially on the kidney transplant list and asked if anybody would consider donating.
She quickly got a message from Hadfield that said, “I have your kidney.”
“She said to me, ‘Listen kid, I saved your dad, I'm going to save you, too,'" Jones remembers Hadfield telling her. “She never wavered, she never heisted, I don’t know how she just knew. She left me speechless. I remember just sitting there crying.”
“I have a spare, so why not give it to her?” Hadfield says.
Courtesy Bob Hadfield
Molly Jones and Kristi HadfieldThe two women talked daily as Hadfield went through the rigorous screening and testing processes.
“She reached out to me every single day to check on me. I remember her saying to me over and over, "Don't you give up on me. Don't you quit on me. Don't you give up,'" Jones remembers. "Having her just cheer me on like that meant so much."
And on December 27, the transplant finally took place.
“This really stands out as one of the more wonderful displays of human kindness that I’ve ever seen,” says the surgeon who performed the transplant, Dr. Amit Tevar, Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at UPMC. “And just a great display of people actually stepping forward and helping others.”
Even better? The transplant went very well.
“My kidney worked immediately,” Jones says.
Courtesy Bob Hadfield
Molly Jones and Kristi HadfieldIn addition to having bonded for life, the two women have made it their mission to "really educate people about the importance of organ donation," Jones explains.
“There are 104,000 people on the transplant list and 84 percent of them are waiting for a kidney – 13 people are going to die every day waiting for a kidney, and it’s because they don’t have a Kristi like I did," she says.
Their transplant surgeon, who encourages anybody interested in becoming a donor to contact him, adds, "when someone is a donor, they truly are saving the life of the recipient."
Courtesy Bob Hadfield
Molly Jones and Kristi HadfieldIn sharing their story, they hope to encourage others to become living donors.
“If you’re thinking about it – reach out,” Hadfield says. “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.”
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