Delayne Ivanowski: Missouri dad breaks down after finding out daughter, 25, was his mystery kidney donor in wholesome video
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI: Children are often willing to go above and beyond for their parents and Delayne Ivanowski, 25, a Missouri-based woman with a sick father has done just that. In a TikTok video now gone viral, the woman is seen revealing to her father that she was his anonymous kidney donor when he had to be taken into surgery and had needed a transplant to save his life. Her father, John, had broken into tears when he saw his daughter walk into the post-op room with an IV drip hooked onto her- seemingly not needing words to realize what his child had done for him.
“Oh my god, are you kidding me?” her father is seen saying as he is taken by his emotions and begins to sob after looking at his wife in disbelief. Delayne immediately comes to her father’s aid, telling him that it was alright. “I knew you were up to something", the father then says, to which Delayne cheekily replies, “I’m always up to something.” While he was upset about his daughter’s actions, he then said he was so very grateful for her selflessness and for not being "hooked up to the [dialysis] machine anymore." The wholesome interaction took place at Mercy Hospital in St Louis.
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Delayne opens up on donating kidney for dad
John was nowhere close to approving of his daughter’s suggestion that she donate a kidney for him. “I’m like, ‘You’re too young, you’ve got a long time to be here and my time’s limited,’” he had said. But Delayne had gone ahead and begun with the tests to make sure she was a match regardless. “I was like, ‘I’m going to do it. I don’t care how mad he is at me. I don’t care if he kicks me out of the house or hates me or doesn’t say a word to me for the rest of my life,'” she said. “At least he’ll be living a good life and not hooked up to a machine.”
"He likes to walk my dog and run with my dog and he wants to do all this stuff, but now he's hooked up to a machine," she told ABC News. "I don't think that's any way that anybody should have to live."
A past tragedy and hope for the future
For the most part, John’s worries about his daughter stemmed from losing a son already. Sixteen years ago, John lost his boy to neuroblastoma, a type of cancer. "I thought, I lost my boy and if anything happened to Delayne, I don't know what I would do," he said. "It was a big concern." However, all is well now that it has all ended well too.
Delayne had also posted an appeal to her followers, asking for help to cover the rest of the medical expenses. She had passionately claimed that if 6,000 people sent her a dollar each they would be able to manage and hoped people would answer her calls. The response was overwhelming, with over $10,000 raised so far.