When it comes to gift-giving, Julia Harlin’s children can’t be bested. After all, how many kids can say that they not only saved their mom’s life twice, but they did so after disobeying her? But what child wouldn’t give a chance at living to their mom?
That is exactly what Julia Harlin found out when she told her five adult children that her liver was failing. They were not, she told them firmly, to donate their own organs to her. Since when do kids listen, though? So, one of her daughters, Eileen Harlin, went and got tested to see if she was a match – and she was a perfect one. So on Mother’s Day in 2022, she told her mom what she had been up to.
“She told me, ‘Mom, you’re going to be mad at me, but for the last four months, I’ve been having all the tests done, and I’m going to be your donor,’” recalled Julia, 71, of Frederick, Md. Julia said she tried to refuse, but the children rebelled and refused to hear any arguments. They told her it was the only way she would be able to live.
Julia and Eileen after their kidney transplant surgery. Photo by the University of Maryland Medical Center
Julia’s liver was failing due to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which is liver inflammation and damage caused by a buildup of fat in the liver, according to Stanford Healthcare. While her name was on the transplant waiting list, Julia was becoming more ill as the months passed. So Eileen and two of her siblings underwent testing, secretly of course, and Eileen was the only match.
“My mom is my universe — I couldn’t imagine not doing it for her,” said Eileen, 39. “I felt like this was something I could do,” said Eileen, who is single and doesn’t have children, like her siblings do.
If I didn’t donate and something bad happened to my mom, I couldn’t have lived with myself.”
“Nobody was ready to not have our mom in our lives,” she added. “It was a gift I was happy to give.”
The transplant was a success, and Julia said she couldn’t have felt more loved by her daughter. That is, until this past summer. Elaine, it seems, had one more gift to give her mother – this time, it was a kidney.
“It’s extremely rare to have a single living donor donate two organs — Julia was initially apprehensive about having her daughter donate again,” said Daniel Maluf, director of the transplant program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Maluf was Julia’s surgeon for both of her transplants.
Julia with some of her grandchildren at a party in 2022. Photo by Eileen Harlin
Again, against her mother’s wishes, Eileen verified that she was a match and drove to tell her mom and her dad, Don Harlin, that she was giving her mom a kidney.
“I told her, ‘Oh no you won’t!’” Julia recalled. “She’d already done it, and I didn’t want her to go through another transplant.” She soon realized she didn’t have much choice. “My doctors said I would never get a deceased donor’s kidney,” Julia said.
Because of my age, they would give (the kidney) to someone younger. And I was going downhill fast.”
So just 1 week before Christmas, Julia got the second best gift from her daughter – a successful kidney transplant.
Julia couldn’t be prouder of Eileen. “I knew that if it wasn’t for Eileen, I’d be dead by now or still waiting for a donor,” Julia added. “She doesn’t even like having her blood drawn, and yet she stepped up.”
Eileen said donating two organs is a small price to pay to see her mom happy and healthy. “I’m really grateful that I was able to do it, because a lot of people may not get that chance,” Eileen said.
However, for the next gift-giving holiday, Eileen said she’d likely be going a different route for gifts. “I don’t think I’ll be giving her another organ,” she said. Watch their amazing story below.
Sources: ABC News | Washington Post
