Brother Donates kidney To Save Sibling After Years On Dialysis; UMMC Surgery Successful
USA: A dramatic family-led transplant journey out of Hattiesburg culminated this month when Willis Preston served as a living donor for his brother, Keith Preston, in a kidney transplantation that medical teams say has put both men on the road to recovery. The brothers moved from initial care at Forrest General Hospital to extensive testing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where a match was confirmed in August 2025 and the operative transfer took place on February 17. The transplant operation lasted about ten hours.
Keith Preston had spent eight years dependent on dialysis, suffering fluid build-up severe enough that he had to sleep sitting upright and feared for his life. He had undergone removal of his left kidney a few months before the transplant, leaving his remaining right kidney functioning at roughly 14 percent prior to receiving the donor organ. Those conditions made a living-donor transplant both urgent and potentially lifesaving.
Willis Preston described a spiritual prompting at Christmas 2024 that set him on the path toward donating, despite deep personal fears about the risks and the future of his own kidney. The brothers went through several rounds of evaluation at UMMC to ensure safety and compatibility; surgeons and staff completed the procedure and report both men are recovering. Medical teams characterized the surgery as a success, and early post-operative progress has been described as steady.
The Prestons have partnered with the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency to turn their private ordeal into public advocacy, urging others to consider donation where medically possible. Willis plans an outreach event focused on kidney health and donation once he has completed recovery. Their experience is being shared to encourage potential donors and to highlight the role of living-donor transplantation in addressing chronic kidney failure.
Video originally published on 2026-03-02 12:33:58
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