Utah woman donates kidney to stranger she met while hiking Y Mountain

MURRAY, Utah (KSL.com) — When Krissy Miller came across a Facebook post about a father in need of a transplant, she couldn’t scroll away.

The picture of the man and his family made her think of her own and her husband, who has Type 1 diabetes. “I thought if I had to live my life without him, I can’t imagine it,” she recalled.

Currently, there are more than 90,000 people across the country waiting for a kidney transplant. It’s that statistic that prompted Intermountain Medical Center on Monday to share Miller’s story and her chance encounter with Shiller Joseph.

“It’s from telling these stories and every year, every day, we have to continually tell the story because if people don’t understand the need, they don’t understand the cause and they’re not able to then contribute as donors or as recipients. We will continue to be relentlessly dedicated to transplanting and caring for patients and we hope that you will relentlessly share our story,” said Derek Ginos, Intermountain transplant and surgery director.

“We’re not going to give up until there are no longer 100,000 people sitting around and waiting.”

Shortly after seeing that post in October of 2022, Miller began the screening process for Living Organ Donation. But ultimately she didn’t meet the criteria and was told she had to lower her blood sugar and lose some weight before she could donate.

For a year, Miller put the thought of donating out of her mind until she “gained some physical and spiritual momentum.” The mother of four began hiking Y Mountain three times a week — a 2.2-mile round trip hike with more than 1,000 feet elevation gain.

The thought of donating began to resurface but Miller tried again to put it aside as her daughter began to prepare to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her husband was scheduled for hip surgery. Yet the thought persisted.

Sitting in the Y Mountain parking lot, Miller prayed for guidance and then set out on her usual hike. She noticed Shiller Joseph and his wife while ascending, but didn’t say anything to them at first.

“If you’ve ever hiked the Y, it’s hard to talk when you’re going uphill,” Miller said.

But she noticed the pair again on her way down and struck up a conversation. The chance encounter with the two on the mountain and a single question ended up changing both of their lives.

“What do you like about Utah?” Miller had asked Joseph, who had recently moved with his family from Florida to start a local ministry.

“I moved up on the transplant list,” responded Joseph, who suffers from lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that damaged his kidneys. Joseph’s health had significantly declined, no longer allowing him to work as he underwent dialysis three times a week.

Miller shared with Joseph that his response was an answer to her prayers and exchanged information with him after learning she and Joseph both had the same blood type, O+. Miller offered her kidney to Joseph if by chance they were a match. Humbled by her offer, he responded, “Whatever God tells you.”

A match made in heaven

Miller went through another series of tests and learned she was a “good match” for Joseph on March 5.

“I don’t believe it was a coincidence that we met that day. That was the one and only time Schiller had ever been on Y Mountain. I believe God made our meeting possible and it’s kind of a shocker to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna donate a kidney.’ But when you feel like you’re part of a bigger plan it’s really easy to want to donate,” she said.

The pair had a lower 90s percentage match, comparable to a match between siblings.

“You grow up knowing everybody is the same, especially if you have a faith,” said Joseph. “Inside it’s all the same, but it’s like God reminded me just in case, ‘I give you somebody who’s the same age as yourself, matches you in saliva and blood.’ It’s the story of his testimony, all this, there is a God — because of all that this miracle was to be told.”

On April 2, Miller and Joseph underwent successful surgeries at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. Joseph had undergone three years of dialysis and spent only a year on the waiting list in Utah, compared to the predicted eight years in Florida.

Joseph still visits the dialysis center, but now it’s to give his friends hope.

“I know about 15 friends who are just praying and hoping and I never understood it (but) I’m going to understand it in the future why God sent my angel to me to ask what brought us here,” Joseph said.