Living Kidney Donor Drives 18 Hours Through Historic Blizzard to Reach Tufts Medical Center for Urgent Transplant

Alaskan Friend Kelley Nixon Drives Through Blizzard To Donate kidney To Michelle Wood

USA: A life-saving living-donor kidney transplant at Tufts Medical Center went forward despite a historic blizzard that threatened to derail the operation. The recipient, Michelle Wood, had been coping with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a progressive genetic condition that places patients at grave risk without transplantation. The donor, Kelley Nixon, had the match and the determination to travel from Anchorage on the date the team had long scheduled.

Transplant coordinators had February 25 circled for months, but a major Northeast winter storm grounded flights and imperiled the sequence of care. Nixon and her husband were stranded in Chicago when New England-bound flights were canceled; they then rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle and began an almost 18-hour overland push to Boston. Hospital staff said the trip left little margin for delay, and the team prepared contingency plans as weather and travel created acute logistical pressure.

Despite the adversity, Nixon arrived with hours to spare and the living-donor kidney transplantation proceeded at Tufts Medical Center under the supervision of the transplant team. Colleen Richards, the center’s nurse coordinator, described the scheduling and preparation that built toward the operation, while the surgical team, including Dr. Varma, reported an uneventful operation and steady recoveries. Both donor and recipient were reported to be doing well during the immediate postoperative period, with no reported complications.

The case became a study in teamwork, perseverance, and the fragile choreography that living-donor transplants demand when external forces intrude. Hospital staff noted how a planned donation can become a milestone for both people involved, and how transplant programs must manage tight timelines, donor logistics, and patient safety when severe weather intervenes. The successful kidney transplant closed a tense chapter that began with PKD and ended with a functioning graft and grateful clinical staff.

Video originally published on 2026-02-26 21:23:48