It was a shock.
Ronald White, 20, who has kidney dysplasia and has been on dialysis for years, had finally found a match and a willing kidney donor. His fellow church member from Faith Clinic Church of God in Christ in Detroit, 23-year-old Diamond Scott, had randomly messaged him, offering her kidney, the Detroit Free Press reports.
"When she called me, I heard her voice, and I still couldn't put a picture to her face," White said, recalling the incident.
Despite being a virtual stranger, Scott was serious—saying God had prompted her generous offer. She took the tests and was identified as a successful match. Everything seemed to be working out perfectly.
Until early Monday morning, when Scott’s life was snatched in a car accident. A man, who police believe ran a red light, broadsided her car just days before the surgery was to be scheduled.
"I went into immediate shock," White told the news site. "I didn't want to believe it until I was on my way home from dialysis. My pastor called me, and that's what he told me and … it actually hit me."
According to the Free Press, church and family members arrived at the scene of the crash, only to have to wait four hours before Scott’s body could be removed from the battered vehicle. At that point it would have been unlikely that her kidney could be successfully transplanted.
"If she died at the scene, she wouldn’t have been able to help her friend out with a kidney donation," Betsy Miner-Swartz, a spokeswoman for the Gift of Life Michigan, explained to the Free Press.
Nonetheless, White remains thankful, despite his delayed transplant. "I was just happy I had a chance to thank her," he told the Free Press.
"I thought it was such a great act of love within our church family setting that our entire congregation needed to see that, to know that," their pastor, the Rev. Zachary Hicks, said in tribute to Scott. "For her to make such a declaration and be prepared to execute it was nothing short of fantastic."
Read more at the Detroit Free Press.