Hooters waitress donates kidney to customer

ROSWELL, Ga. -- A waitress at a Hooters in Georgia will donate her kidney to a longtime regular customer of the restaurant.

WXIA-TV reports Don Thomas is a frequent patron of the Hooters in Roswell who lost both of his kidneys to cancer. Waitress Mariana Villarreal recently offered to donate him one of hers. The pair is scheduled for surgery Friday.

Villarreal and Thomas barely know each other, but Villarreal recently lost her grandmother to kidney failure and says she felt inspired to help Thomas.

"I wasn't able to do anything for my grandma," Mariana told WXIA. "If [Don] can live two more years, happy as he's ever been, that's fine with me. That's not up to me. I did my part, now it's God's turn to keep him alive."

Dr. Harrison Pollinger, one of the program directors of the Piedmont Transplant Institute, says both donor and recipient should be able to live healthy lives after the surgery.

Villarreal says she hopes their story will inspire others to donate organs to those in need.

In:
• Georgia