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A 'walking miracle of God'
Yolanda Corona receives a new kidney in record time from donor

Yolanda Corona, 51, is celebrating new health thanks to a recent kindey donation. Corona was on the organ donation list for roughly one week before an organ became available to her.

Yolanda Corona, 51, is celebrating new health thanks to a recent kindey donation. Corona was on the organ donation list for roughly one week before an organ became available to her.

When Yolanda Corona of Williams decided to seek a kidney transplant, she had no clue how lucky she would get. Often, transplant recipients will wait years for a suitable organ to become available. For Corona, that wait lasted only days.

Corona, 51, suffered from kidney failure and faced a two-year process of dialysis while awaiting a suitable organ. Born and raised in Williams, Corona worked for the city of Williams for 13 years. She has raised her two daughters, Cecilia and Monica, by herself for the last 11 years.

"I had my transplant seven weeks ago. They called me on a Tuesday and told me that they were going to put me on a waiting list," Corona said. "My brother is still being tested, he matched as far as blood was concerned. The next step for him was that they were going to get his medical records and things like that, but then transplant services called me on a Tuesday and said they were going to put me on the waiting list Thursday and I said okay. I was still thinking my brother had gone through this stuff so it would be a while. The following Thursday they called me and they said, 'We have a kidney for you.'"

Corona said she was contacted at roughly 7:30 at night and told to come to Phoenix immediately. As she had not expected to be contacted so quickly, Corona had nothing packed and was not prepared to go. Her sister told her earlier that same day that she should have a bag packed should she be notified that a new kidney was available.

"I was throwing everything in the bag," Corona said. "And down to Phoenix we went. My niece Valerie took me and we got there about midnight and they started doing all the tests."

Nearly everyone Corona spoke to expressed surprise at the short amount of time she had been on the waiting list before an acceptable donor became available. The only information Corona received about her donor, she said, was that she was 20-years-old and came from southern California.

"It doesn't happen very often where it's that fast," Corona said. "People wait for years once they're on the waiting list. There are six things you have to match, plus the blood type. When they put her six things into the computer, they told me that my name came up first, so I tell people I'm a walking miracle of God, because I have all these people praying and I'm a big believer that prayer helped."

Despite her elation at receiving the organ, however, Corona said she experienced a tremendous amount of pain when she woke up the next morning following her transplant surgery.

"I was in pain, because they can't give you anything until you wake up. They need to know what pain level you're at," she said, adding that the recuperation was slow as well, partly due to her dialysis treatment and a number of different medicines that would often make her feel light-headed.

Corona is currently seeing the doctor once a week to make sure her body doesn't reject the new kidney.

"I'm feeling better. I still get tired, but I'm feeling better. I'm walking up to just over a mile a day," Corona said. "I'm able to do a few more things that I didn't do before. Not having to go to dialysis is wonderful. There are so many people that I would like to thank. I just feel very fortunate that I was able to do it so quickly."

Corona added that her health is already showing signs of a return to normal.

"Now I can do little things, like I can do laundry and I can make dinner, things like that, I can vacuum," Corona said. "I still have some restrictions. I can't lift more than 10 pounds for 10 weeks, but that's just a couple more weeks away."

She said her two daughters are very excited about their mother's improved conditions.

"Now I get to go to different things that they have. Celia, last year she went in NHS (National Honors Society) when I was in the hospital, so this year when they initiated the new one I had to go to Phoenix to the doctor, so I missed that again," Corona said, adding that she is looking forward to being able to attend more of her daughters' school related events, and said that she is even beginning to consider returning to work.

"I want to go back to work," Corona said. "I was very fortunate that I was able to go on disability to take care of everything, but there's just something about going to work and earning the money. I know that I earned the benefit of going on disability, but if I can go out and work, I feel more fulfilled."


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