A nearly eight-hour surgery at the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Center on Dec. 20 was a success for both 14-year-old Turlock Christian student Jaxon Shaneyfelt and his kidney donor, 40-year-old Sarah Best of Sacramento.

For nearly an entire year, Shaneyfelt battled juvenile nephronophthisis, which is a fibrosis that impairs kidney function and leads to life-threatening failure of kidney function. At the time of his surgery, he had creatine levels of 5.63 just ahead of his surgery. Less than 24 hours following the successful transplant, his levels were at 1.8. On Christmas Day, it was down to .88, which is considered normal kidney function.

“It’s a true Christmas miracle,” said his mother, Micah.

Now that surgery is behind them, Shaneyfelt and his family will be staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto, as he must be within a 50-mile radius of Stanford. There, he will be closely monitored for up to eight weeks. He is focusing on drinking lots of water as his body adjusts to new immunosuppressant medications that he must now take for the rest of his life.

Best is going through a recovery of her own, though not as extreme. She is staying at home and has been instructed to rest up as much as possible and to not do much exercise or heavy lifting. She will have occasional checkups in the coming months. Expected recovery time for her is six to seven weeks.

“If I feel something's going wrong, then I just have to reach out. The recovery is a lot more about Jaxon now,” Best said. “I don't have to be on long term medication like he does. There's nothing really I have to do, I just have to let the body heal. He has a bigger fight than I do on a daily basis because of his pain and discomfort. He seems to be doing really well, so that just makes me feel a lot much better.”

Best first learned of Shaneyfelt’s situation in early June after a mutual friend shared a post on her Instagram story. The mutual relationship was unbeknownst until she met with the Shaneyfelts on Thursday.

“When I saw the post, I just kind of knew I could help,” Best said. “It may sound weird, but I just had this feeling. I'm O-negative, so I know I'm a universal donor. I've always done blood donations, and I can do plasma donations. I think in the back of my head,  I always wanted to be able to help on a bigger level.”

Shaneyfelt explained he was nervous ahead of finally meeting Best. After meeting his “kidney buddy,” he said it felt good to thank her for saving his life.

Micah described the experience of meeting Best for the first time as “surreal.”

“Words were stuck because I couldn’t even think of what to say to describe my love and appreciation to the person who saved my son’s life and gave him a second chance,” Micah said.

“It was really awesome for it to all come full circle,” Best added. “To see the look on his parents' faces, their pure joy. To see that there is so much weight off their shoulders. It was honestly an honor to be able to shake their hands and give them hugs.… He's just such a brave kid. I can't imagine being 13, 14 and knowing you have that need, and hoping someday you get that. It just makes me want to have more kidneys to give to more people.”

“She is someone you meet and just know they are a beautiful person inside and out,” Micah said of Best.  “An absolute true angel on Earth.”