NOBLESVILLE — A Hamilton County woman is expressing her gratitude to the family who donated an organ from their loved one, which gave her a second chance at life.
Emmy Nix almost never got the chance to live her dreams of becoming a mom, wife and nurse.
She got sick with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, at a young age. The disease led to primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease.
"I was kind of oblivious to the whole thing," Nix said. "I just kept going, like what else is there to do?"
She was given one to two years to live.
"If it was my time, it was my time. I think I had come to terms with that," Nix said.
Nix's liver was failing; She needed a transplant.
As she waited, she studied for exams in nursing school, met her now husband Jason and prayed for a new liver.
Nix's time limit on life was given seven years ago.
She received a liver from a total stranger. Seven years ago, livers only came from deceased patients.
"I never prayed that somebody would die and that I would live," Nix sad.
But that gift of life is something that's left Nix with gratitude. Since her transplant, Nix has gotten to live a life she otherwise never would have had.
"I am a nurse now. We adopted our son Elijah, we got married," she said.
Nix is a nurse with IU Health and works with patients who are dealing with issues that she has experienced herself.
"That's the biggest thing we can be thankful for. The life that we build together, and have built with him [Elijah]," Jason said.
Nix said she is now building a life that wouldn't be here without a strangers organ.
"It's fun," Nix said. "Life is fun now that I am healthy."
There are currently more than 10,000 people on the wait list for a liver across the county.
Liver transplants can now come from living donors. It's the only organ in the human body that can regenerate itself.
Learn more on living liver donation here.
