A Stranger Saved My Life

After a near-fatal blood infection led to kidney failure and the loss of both her hands and feet, a 43-year-old mom finds hope—and the courage to survive—when a woman she’d never met donates her kidney for a lifesaving transplant

- Caitlin Keating

The morning of June 14, 2016, started like any other superbusy day for New York City mom and entrepreneur Ilysa Winick as she scrambled to put the finishing touches on plans for son Benjamin’s first grade end-of-year party. She remembers feeling a bit achy and run-down but wrote it off to her hectic work schedule and the previous weekend she’d spent celebrating her 42nd birthday with friends. “We were just a young, happy family,” says Ilysa. “It was a really full life.”

Within a few short hours, that idyllic life would take a tragic turn. By 2 p.m., Ilysa’s morning aches had turned into excruciating pain—“I felt like my hands and feet were on fire. I was screaming”— and plunged Ilysa into a terrifying battle with a blood infection that would ultimately cost her both her hands and feet and leave her in desperate need of a kidney transplant to survive. But it also led her to what she calls the most humbling and life-affirming experience: receiving the gift of a kidney from a complete stranger. In August, Ilysa underwent transplant surgery thanks to a donated kidney from People photo director Catriona Ni Aolain, 45 (see sidebar). “It’s the most unselfish type of gift you can give someone,” says Ilysa, now 43, who texts with Ni Aolain daily and thinks of her like a sister. “I would have been grateful for anyone’s kidney, but I’m so glad it was hers....Despite everything I lost,” she adds, “somebody thought my life was still worth saving.”