Perfect match: Fort Myers woman to donate kidney to boyfriend

Michael Floyd and Jhillian Sahli are the perfect match — in more ways than one.

The Fort Myers couple quickly fell in love after meeting on October 29, 2016.

“He makes me a better person,” Sahli said.

A few months after the pair started dating, they were faced with a troubling situation. Floyd was taken to the hospital in April 2017, where he discovered his kidneys were failing and needed immediate dialysis.

Doctors told Floyd his creatinine levels were at 6.7 — the normal level for an adult male should be around 1.3.

Healthy kidneys maintain the blood creatinine in a normal range, but as kidney disease progresses the level of creatinine in the blood rises.

“Clinically, I should have already been bed ridden, in a hospital, clinging to life,” Floyd said.

For the last year, Floyd has received dialysis three times a week for four hours a day.

“Dialysis keeps you alive, it doesn’t fix the problem, and it makes you sicker and sicker the longer you’re on it,” Floyd said.

Floyd visited Tampa General Hospital in June 2017, where a doctor asked Sahli if she would be interested in being a kidney donor. Not only did she agree, but she was a 75 percent match.

“I was very scared that the person I had spent so much time getting to know and falling in love with was gonna die right in front of me,” Sahli said.

After running a few more tests, Sahli became a 100 percent match and eligible to donate her kidney to Floyd.

The news came as a surprise as Floyd expected to be on a donor waiting list for years. Doctors have to take age, blood type and gender into account when attempting to find the best fit.

“I said there’s no way that someone is gonna be a match for me. Like it just, all the statistics show that you’re on dialysis for three to five years before you ever find someone that’s a match,” Floyd said.

The couple’s match is rare. Floyd’s doctor said he hasn’t seen a case like theirs in 28 years.

“I’d met this person who not only changed my life for me, but I could change his life, I could save his life,” Sahli said.

Sahli received the good news just three days before Floyd’s birthday last year.

“We cried, and we cried, and we cried, until we couldn’t cry anymore. Just tears of joy,” Sahli said.

The kidney transplant is scheduled for August 22. Floyd said he’ll never be able to thank Sahli enough.

“I don’t think very many people get that opportunity in their lifetime, to save the person they love’s life,” Sahli said.

The procedure will cost the couple more than $10,000. For more information, click here.