Man Gifts Wife Life-saving Gift to Mark Their 23rd Wedding Anniversary | Guess What

A Florida man who wanted his sick wife to have a normal life gave her a life-saving gift on their wedding anniversary.

Cesar and Monica Calle celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary on Thursday, and they have more than that to celebrate as he gave her his Kidney.

With it, Cesar Calle gave his wife a life free of painful dialysis treatment, which she needed for polycystic kidney disease she had been fighting for a decade, the Sun Sentinel reported.

“It’s kind of like winning the lottery,” said a smiling Monica as she spoke to reporters at Memorial Regional Hospital’s newly opened Transplant Institute, where some 30 nurses, doctors and medical staff removed Cesar’s kidney and sewed it inside his wife.

For more than two years, Monica has been tethered to a dialysis machine for eight-and-a-half hours every day. Somehow, she managed to work full-time at the same hospital where she would have her transplant surgery.

Monica inherited her kidney disease from her mother, who was also a transplant recipient.

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Cesar and Monica underwent a grueling sequence of tests to determine whether he would be a worthwhile donor. Institute staff called Cesar first. Not only was he a match with his wife, he was a perfect match.

“Even siblings aren’t always a perfect match,” Monica said.

As she celebrates her wedding anniversary, Monica reflected, “Little did we know 23 years ago that this was going to be the angel to save my life. I felt like I just won the lottery.

”I started dreaming of what my future would look like, not having to do dialysis. The fact that I can actually travel now and not worry about carrying boxes with me or supplies, or worry if it’s gonna get lost. I felt so free.”

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Selflessly, her husband offered to donate one of his kidney’s to his wife. The couple spoke about the five-hour surgery during a press conference from the Hospital where the surgery was performed on Feb. 19.

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“I feel like a million dollars,” Monica said, three weeks after the transplant. “And I think I look like a million bucks, compared to before.”

Dr. Juan Arenas, a surgeon and chief of the hospital’s Memorial Transplant Institute said,

“To find a match between spouses is very unusual but very lucky for us to be able to find that.”

Cesar said, “For me to do this, it was big. I was shocked. I thought it’s not real, this is not happening.”

Wow… this is a proof that love still exists and it is selfless!

Photo credit: Memorial Healthcare System