A Dallas man got a new lease on life after receiving a kidney from a donor, a woman who died in a car accident.
Jason Wu’s kidney had failed, and he was in desperate need of a transplant when 23-year-old Ambriana Ricks died in a car accident in 2021.
Luckily for Jason, Ambriana was an organ donor, and he received her kidney in a life-saving transplant.
On April 27, exactly one year after Ambriana’s accident, Jason met her family at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth and learned more about her.
“Ambriana was a fearsome, passionate, and caring person,” Amber Ricks said in a video posted on the Facebook page of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.
Amber, Ambriana’s mother, added that the last year has been tough without her daughter.
“But to have something positive like this, to see how her choice to be an organ donor has given him back his life. I’m grateful, I’m really grateful for that,” Amber added before the video showed her and Jason in a deep and warm embrace.
Jason, who is very grateful to Ambriana and her family, said the operation has given him the energy he needs to do the things he loves.
“I don’t think it’s easy to understand the impact you’ll have on someone’s life when you do donate your organs,” Jason said in the video. “But I can tell you from experience that it does make such a huge difference.”
Jason added that understanding how Ambriana’s choice changed so many lives and seeing the “really nice legacy” it leaves behind has led him to choose to be an organ donor, too.
Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth posted the video while celebrating its annual wall of life celebration to celebrate organ donors and recipients.
“The kidney transplant program is a precious program to us,” said Joseph DeLeon, President of Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth. “It has been a part of our ministry… our service for many years now, and it is critically important as we serve the community every day.”
