By Colleen Le’s last relationship left her with a broken heart and one less kidney. She recently went viral on TikTok after posting a video about her decision to donate one of her kidneys to her boyfriend. She had only known him for a year at the time, but she felt it was the right thing to do.
Le met her boyfriend in 2015 and decided to donate her kidney to him after just a few months of dating.
“At the time we met, he was already going through peritoneal dialysis, which meant his kidney function was already at less than 5%, so I felt like it was urgent, and he needed a kidney as soon as possible,” she said.
She says her boyfriend didn’t pressure her into going through with the procedure.
“He didn’t technically ask me for a kidney but pretty much opened the door for me to get tested.” She said he was always upfront about his condition and showed her brochures on who to call if she wanted to find out if she was a match to donate.
Ultimately, she decided to go forward with the idea as a way of improving his overall quality of life.
“I saw how his day-to-day was and how much he was struggling health-wise so that already convinced me to want to help him the best way I can.”
Le said their relationship stayed about the same for the next seven months, but then things started to charge. Her boyfriend went away for a bachelor party and came back to tell her that he cheated on her.
“My initial reaction was hurt and betrayal,” Le said. “He was a hardcore Christian and always stuck to his morals throughout our relationship, so it definitely shocked me that he would betray me like that after everything I’ve done for him. I felt incredibly backstabbed and taken advantage of.”
Despite having her feelings hurt, Le decided to give him another chance.
“Honestly, thinking back, I don’t know why I thought giving him another chance would work out our relationship when my trust in him was completely shattered.”
Three months later, the couple found themselves having an argument on the phone when her boyfriend suddenly stopped and asked her to read the Bible with him.
“I told him, ‘No, can we just talk it out?’ That right there triggered him so much that he just pretty much broke up with me and said, ‘If God wanted us to be together, then we’ll find a way back together in the end.'” He then hung up the phone and proceeded to block Colleen’s number, as well as all of her social media accounts.
Losing her boyfriend was hard enough. Her loss was compounded by the fact that she now had one less kidney.
“I really thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him and loved him so much that I saved his life. Just the fact that he cut ties with me so easily and made me feel like I never existed in his life was really hard to get over.”
Another two months went by without the two speaking to each other.
Finally, her boyfriend reached out to her and invited her out to lunch on the one-year anniversary of the donation.
“I didn’t respond because I felt like he only reached out to me over guilt.” Colleen said that even after everything, she doesn’t regret giving her ex-boyfriend her kidney, and said, “Despite the outcome of everything, I still wouldn’t take back saving his life.”
Le eventually decided to turn her unfortunate situation into a hilarious TikTok video after seeing what kinds of stories other people were posting.
@colleeeniie ok I’m done after this lol
“It inspired me to do the same. I thought it was funny to make satire out of a traumatic experience.”
She was surprised when the video started receiving so much attention online. It now has over 16 million views.
“I didn’t think it was going to get viral the way it did. Most of the responses to the video were really positive, heartfelt, and sweet, and some have said that it gave them hope. It feels amazing to know that my videos are giving them hope and having them believe that despite all the hurt, everything will be okay in the end.”
Users shared their reactions to the story in the comments section.
“Take the kidney back,” one person said, while someone else told her to “ask for a refund”.
“At least a part of you will always be with him,” another TikToker said.
And one person offered a bit of advice: “Don’t give a man ANYTHING. NEVER.”
