Heroic daughter saves mom's life twice by donating two organs in extreme medical rarity: 'Completely selfless'

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Daughter donates liver and kidney to mother: 'I was definitely going to do it'

A Maryland daughter donated two organs to her mother to save her life in an incredibly rare medical event. She describes having no hesitation to do so in an interview with Fox News Digital.

A Maryland daughter has now donated two organs to her mother in what doctors are calling an extreme medical rarity.

"The decision-making was super simple. I was doing it as long as I knew I was a match," the daughter, Eileen Harlin, told Fox News Digital about donating organs to her mother, Julia, 71. 

Both transplants, a partial liver in 2022 and a kidney in December, were conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore. 

Dr. Daniel Maluf, a transplant surgeon at UMMC who operated on the mom and daughter, told Fox News it was a "unique event" for a patient to donate two organs. 

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Eileen Harlin has undergone two different transplants, on different dates, that have been lifesaving for her 71-year-old mother, Julia.  (Eileen Harlin)

"It's a rare thing," he said. "I think that, eventually, in the future it will be done more as we become more confident." 

"I would highlight the fact that [Eileen] seemed to be completely selfless and very caring about the mother, which is really just to be congratulated, and I think that she's the real hero of this story."

Julia found out several years ago that her liver was failing. She had a condition known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) cirrhosis, and her only path to survival was through a liver transplant. 

This left Julia with just two options. The first was to wait for a deceased donor that matched her blood type, but this process can often be long, given that there are thousands on the wait list for the same type of transplant. 

Dr. Maluf said it would have taken 8-10 years for the kidney. "Most of the patients, when they get to that age, kind of the only option is to have a living donor, to find somebody that will give an organ. Otherwise, they will sit on the waiting list for a long time and get dialysis," he said. 

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Julia Harlin has 12 grandchildren, some of which are pictured here.  (Eileen Harlin)

"I told my children I didn't want them to even apply. I didn't want to worry about them and something going wrong. I would feel like, oh they're doing something for me, and something happened," Julia said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

Eileen, 39, along with two of her siblings, applied to be living donors, with their mother unaware that this process was underway. 

"It was a surprise," Julia said in an interview. "At that point, I was getting worse and worse, and I was having to go through a lot of procedures, like once a week."

Both transplants were done at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.  (Eileen Harlin )

Julia said she had fluid accumulating in her abdomen because her stomach wasn't pumping properly. She would have to get it drained 1-2 times per week, where a needle would be stuck into her stomach and then a machine would pump all the fluid out. 

At the time, she was on a donor list and "nothing seemed to be moving." It was estimated that it would take five years.

"I don't think I would have made it five years waiting for it," Julia said. 

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Julia (left) and Eileen (right) talk about organ donations and family bonds in an interview with Fox News Digital.

After a few months, it was determined that Eileen was indeed a match. She told her parents the news, and the liver transplant took place on August 16, 2022. 

The transplant served Julia well, until she began to experience kidney failure. Eileen was once again tested and was a match for a kidney transplant.

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"We've always had such a strong bond, I guess more now that you've got some of my organs in there," said Eileen. "We've always been close."

"Recovery, I think we're both doing really well. Slowly but surely, we're getting there. A little swollen, but we're moving."