Lightning Strikes Again: Aniesia’s Kidney Transplant

It’s often said that lightning doesn’t strike twice, but in Ben and Felicia Morris’ life, it sure did.

Ben and Felicia are the parents of three daughters Andrea (oldest), Aniya (middle), and Aniesia (youngest). As unlikely as it was, two of them, Aniesia and Andrea, faced the threat of kidney failure just four years apart.

When Andrea was diagnosed first with kidney failure in 2014, it sent shockwaves through the Morris family. It was only four years later in 2018 at Aniesia’s annual checkup that Felicia had a hunch and asked her family pediatrician to run a test for kidney disease, known as a glomerular filtration rate, or GFR.

The lab result indicated Aniesia was “on the road to kidney failure” and once again Ben and Felicia’s entire world was turned upside down.

After hearing their youngest daughter Aniesia’s diagnosis, Felicia sat with a bittersweet taste in her mouth. While grateful that she knew what to expect, she was disheartened to again face the kidney transplant process with another daughter.

The news weighed heavily on Felicia’s mind.

“Aniesia was asymptomatic. If I hadn’t asked for that test, she would have for sure had kidney failure,” Felicia said.

At just 8 years old, Aniesia underwent eight months of dialysis.

“Breathe … one day at a time,” Felicia would tell herself as she hooked Aniesia up to her dialysis machine for the night. “It felt like our life had to be put on hold every day at 7 p.m. We had to tell her that her situation was like ‘princess port’ and that only special girls go on this mission.”

Felicia created the princess port idea to spare her young daughter the medical terms.

Aniesia’s sisters would spend the night with her while Felicia and her husband sat at the kitchen table pondering how to explain this hardship to their fourth grader.

To help her understand her situation, Felicia created coloring pages to show Anesia what healthy and unhealthy kidneys looked like.

In November 2018, Felicia and her family received more life-altering news: After one potential donor was rejected, a matching donor had been found. In the blink of an eye, the family was on the road for a three-hour trip from Thomasville, Georgia, to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida.

“Dr. Kiran Upadhyay and Rachel Bush set us up for success,” Felicia said. “Everyone always made us feel valued. There wasn’t a time of day that Aniesia was not being taken care of.”

UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is known for its patient care, and Aniesia’s case was no different.

“We were always met with patience, wisdom, a personal touch, and care to our family,” Felicia said. “You know you are not just a patient. You are a valued member of the transplant team and treated with the highest level of care.”

Felicia joked that her daughter’s care was almost too good.

“Spoiled. If I had to say how the UF Health staff took care of her, she was spoiled,” Felicia said. “They had video games, movies, therapy dogs. It was nonstop. Everyone knew who she was, and she was taken care of greatly from the moment we arrived to the day we left.”

Aniesia’s transplant surgery only took a few hours, and she startled everyone by getting up the next day as if nothing had happened.

“Even the nurses were surprised when she asked to go get ice cream from downstairs,” Felicia said.

After less than a week in the hospital, Aniesia went home to recover, and some of her teachers and classmates visited her while she healed.

Andrea, her oldest sister who underwent a kidney transplant in 2014, was a huge part of Aniesia’s treatment, acting as her anchor.

“Both of the girls would go into the bedroom to have these ‘secret meetings,’” Felicia said. “It was really Andrea explaining to Aniesia what to expect during this time.”

The family faced another ordeal when Andrea passed away in 2021 from COVID-19 pneumonia, despite her donated kidney staying strong until the end. Andrea’s legacy lives on through the foundation Felicia created in 2017.

The Morris Family makes it their mission to educate people about kidney disease, especially minorities. In 2024, they helped organize an event to offer free renal panel testing, glucose testing, APOL1 gene testing, and information about genetics and kidney health to the community.

Felicia is also an enthusiastic advocate for organ donation.

“It’s hard to think about, but it can happen to you,” Felicia said. “Every year on Aniesia’s kidney transplant anniversary, we pray for our organ donors and their families.”

After Aniesia’s transplant surgery, the family of her donor wrote Aniesia a letter and sent her a picture of her donor. Felicia shared it with Aniesia on the fifth anniversary of her transplant. While Felicia can’t thank either of her daughter’s donors in person, she is forever grateful for their decision to donate the Gift of Life.

In August, Aniesia started her freshman year of high school.

Felicia once again found herself having to remember to breathe and take things one day at a time. But this time, her deep breath was a sigh of relief that Aniesia had made it to school on time.

Resources

• If you’re interested in joining Florida’s registry as an organ, eye and tissue donor, visit DonateLifeFlorida.org.
• For those interested in becoming a living organ donor, visit our Living Kidney Donation page.