Selina Hodge Gets A Kidney Transplant From A Stranger After Posting Ad on Craigslist

A missed connection? Not this time. A woman in need of a kidney transplant was wheeled into surgery in Miami Tuesday after finding a donor by posting on Craigslist.

Palm Beach Gardens resident Selina Hodge, 28, turned to the online classifieds site in desperation in May and again in July. Born with spina bifida, it eventually caused her kidneys to fail, leaving her on dialysis 9 hours a day and still feeling sick.

"That's when I turned to Craigslist, because I didn't know where else to turn," she told WPTV.

23-year-old Stephanie Grant, who lives just miles from Hodge, saw a new story about her ad and responded. The pair drove Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami several times for evaluations, and after months of waiting finally got the green light for a transplant.

"It just amazes me that somebody would actually lay down their life for a complete stranger," Hodge's mother Gina Evans told WPTV.

Their families, who said a prayer together before the women were wheeled into an operating room, told WPTV both patients are doing well so far after surgery as doctors monitor their progress.

"Living donors are very unique individuals," Jackson's Dr. Linda Chen told WPTV. "They are the true heroes in society because they are completely selfless and they have nothing to gain from the procedure and it's actually a gift of love."

Soliciting for a living donor on Craigslist is legal so long as the donor is not paid, reports the Sun-Sentinel, who noted Hodge was one of 986 people waiting for a matching kidney at the Miami center and 89,458 nationwide. Last year, the paper reported, 4,840 Americans -- 178 of them Floridians -- died waiting for a match.