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BR Parents: Exceptional Lives - Perfect Match Kidney Transplant Makes Dream Come True

The summer before going to college, Ali Hooks began noticing something was wrong. After her move from Opelousas to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech, she sought medical help for the first time in her young, healthy life.

“I saw a couple doctors and none of them could really diagnose me with what was happening,” says Ali, now 20. As a first-generation college student, Ali was told she was experiencing anxiety and nerves, and later, doctors thought she had a stomach ulcer. But she continued to feel worse, and on October 5, 2018, she walked into the emergency room unable to breathe. Further testing revealed end-stage renal disease, and Ali was immediately rushed into an emergency surgery.

Read the rest on the Baton Rouge Parents magazine website.