FRANKFORT, Ill. — When Christopher Dempsey decided to donate half of his liver to save a complete stranger in February 2015, he knew he was changing her life — little did he know that she was changing his in the process.
Dempsey, 38, said he was sitting in the break room at work when he overheard a coworker talking about his cousin, who needed a liver transplant, the BBC reports. After hearing the conversation, he decided to get himself tested and found out he was a match for 27-year-old Heather Krueger; so he called to deliver the news.
“I just thought to myself, I would want someone to help me or my family in that situation,” he said.
Krueger, who had stage four liver disease and had been given a 50 percent chance of surviving two more months without a transplant happily accepted his offer.
Shortly after the phone call, they met for lunch and the relationship began to escalate from there.
“We were going out looking for donations for a benefit, and I just started thinking, she’s a really nice girl, she is somebody I would like to get to know,” Mr Dempsey said.
In March 2015, they had successful surgery at the University of Illinois Hospital and the pair became official shortly afterward.
He proposed eight months later, and the two were married 19 months after the transplant.
“I never would have thought in a million years when I agreed to all this that I would marry her. It is amazing.”