UPMC Team Beats 1% Odds: Heart And Kidney Transplant Recipient Works For NFL After Living Kidney Donation

Brooke Sturgis Rebuilds Life After heart And kidney Transplants, Returns To Work NFL Draft

USA: Brooke Sturgis, who faced a 1% chance of survival at age 19, has rebuilt her life after receiving both a heart and a kidney transplant at UPMC and will return to her hometown of Pittsburgh to work the NFL Draft. The ringing of a bell that marked her recovery has become a powerful symbol of a new chapter — one that led her into a career as an events coordinator for the National Football League.

Sturgis’s emergency began in June 2021 when she was rushed to UPMC unable to breathe and went into cardiogenic shock. Doctors determined she needed a heart transplant; complications from the crisis and a rare gene mutation left her kidneys severely damaged and put her on dialysis. The treatments took a heavy physical toll — she dropped to about 85 pounds and suffered seizures and debilitating side effects from dialysis.

Family intervention proved decisive. After months on the transplant waiting list and a COVID-related postponement that canceled a planned surgery, her mother stepped forward and donated a kidney on Christmas Eve. The operation was completed around Sturgis’s 20th birthday, a moment her family framed as a life-changing gift that ended her time on dialysis.

Now recovered from both procedures, Sturgis travels for the NFL and returns to Pittsburgh with a mission to give back to the medical community that saved her. Her dual transplants remain central to her story of recovery and service, illustrating the life-transforming power of organ transplantation and family donors.

Video originally published on 2026-04-16 19:48:24