Monica Fox’s bout with COVID-19 pneumonia nearly cost her her life. Her daughter Olivia was her lifeline.
Their story is a testament to family love and the benefits of organ donation.
Monica was on kidney dialysis for three years until she was lucky to receive a kidney in 2017 that had been recovered from an accident victim. Life was going along on an even keel until January 2022 when the Flossmoor resident spent three weeks in the hospital trying to recover from pneumonia. Doctors became concerned about her heart and kidney functions.
“It’s a fine balance between cardiac and kidney issues. My cardiologists were being very conservative to try to protect my kidney function,” Monica recalls. For three years, she followed doctors’ orders, but in May 2025 as her condition worsened, her medical team told her they could save her life, but they would take her kidney.
Olivia, of Homewood, told doctors she would be donating a kidney for her mother.
“I’d been saying I had this kidney on reserve for her since the first time,” Olivia said. “I knew I was a match back then” but her mom said at the time that she “couldn’t bear the thought” of Olivia donating a kidney because she’d just graduated college.
Now, Monica said Olivia’s “a real expert and was motivated to do it and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Between June and October mother and daughter had a routine working with a personal trainer to get in shape for the upcoming surgery. Doctors wanted Monica to improve her BMI (body-mass index) and Olivia was her supporter “but I also did it for myself. I wanted to be strong going into the surgery and I thought that would help.”
and grandson Jacoby Brown. Olivia gave her mother a kidney
in October. (Provided photo)
Oliva said, “My mom is strong and she’s also strategic and figures out how to make puzzle pieces fit.” So, Monica had dialysis Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and they exercised Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Dr. Ivo Svetanov at the University of Illinois Hospital had been Monica’s surgeon in 2017 and he did her kidney transplant this time as well. But the procedure was done robotically. She has about a four-inch scar compared to the first surgery’s big incision across her belly that needed to heal.
Olivia also said she did a lot of walking as part of the laparoscopic surgery recovery process recommended by her doctors.
Monica believes had she not contracted COVID she would still be living with her donated kidney, but both she and Olivia agree that a kidney from a living donor typically has better outcomes.
“Definitely, if you know of someone in need and you are able, don’t be afraid to step up and be a living donor. I would do it again,” Olivia said. “The recovery time is nothing compared to the amount of time my mom’s been on dialysis. It was totally worth it to save my mom, but to help anyone that I love. I’d encourage people to be a living donor.”
“Living donation is an amazing gift that you can give to a person. Everyone’s born with two kidneys, and you only need one,” Monica said. “That’s the only way we’re going to reduce the number of people waiting on kidney transplant lists is the transplant donors and living donors.”
The journeys of mother and daughter the past 10 years have them both serving as advocates for kidney donation. Monica is back to work as vice president of government relations and external affairs for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois and Olivia works at the University of Illinois Health’s Transplant Center in Chicago.
