**Warning: graphic images in this video***

(St. Louis, MO) -- On Wednesday, we caught up with Jami Loftin and Brandi Basinger, after finding out Brandi was a match to donate her kidney to Jami.

After weeks of testing, sleepless nights, and a morning of prepping for the surgery, the girls were wheeled into the operating rooms at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

"It will change a lot," said Loftin. "I can go swimming. I can take trips. I can go to Branson. I don't have to worry about what time it is and, you know, what I've eaten today and all kind of other stuff. I'm just ready!"

"Some people do think 'm a little bit crazy, but most people have been really supportive," said Basinger.

They didn't seem too nervous, and for good reason, observed KOZL reporter Melissa Stern.

"Living donor transplants in general have a success rate of over 95 percent," said Dr. Surendra Shenoy, Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Living Donor Transplantation Program.

And it's possible their husbands were more nervous than they were.

"You just feel totally useless," said Quinn Loftin, Jami's husband. "You try your best, but there's just not a whole lot you can do about it."

When Brandi told her husband Benjamin she was going to donate a kidney to her friend Jami, it took him a while to warm up to the idea.

"The benefits definitely outweigh the risks," he said, adding to his emotions. "Nervous. As you can tell, I'm really fidgety. I can't sit still, and I'm scared."

But he says it makes him proud to be married to such a selfless woman.

"I brag to all my friends about her. She's becoming the center point of a lot of conversations. She's something special. She really is."

David Honeycutt, Jami's dad, said he's very anxious and stressed.

"The last two nights I haven't gotten any sleep."

He's been looking forward to this and he's happy his daughter will get to live life like she did before her kidney started failing.

"She never had any real health problems growing up. She was very strong, then she had the flu and found out she only had one kidney. So that was about 7 or 10 years ago or something. She found out when she was older. I didn't know when she was younger because she was so strong and healthy."

He says Brandi is his hero.

"She's the most remarkable. My daughter and her are remarkable young ladies. They're strong, healthy, mentally and physically. I've just never met two young ladies that are like that."

Doctors use a tiny microscope to see inside the patient. They say from the donor's perspective, their biggest concern is bleeding during or after surgery.

"The main thing we worry about it getting into bleeding because we're stapling off vessels that are arising from one of the major blood vessels in the body," said Dr. Majella Doyle, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital. "There is always a concern that the staple could not work or that there could be bleeding from any of those branches."

Dr. Doyle Barnes Jewish does about 250 kidney transplants a year -- kidneys from donors who are carefully checked, and who can live a normal life with one kidney.

"And there are many people out there including many recipients of transplants who only survive on one kidney, so one kidney is perfectly able to look after you for the rest of your life."

Not only do these surgeons perform surgery, they can do it making the tiniest incisions. Whereas in the past, this surgery left long scars.

"So essentially most of the donors have an incision maybe around 7 centimeters to around two or two and a half inches long, and we are able to retrieve the kidney with that small incision," said Dr. Shenoy.

Dr. Shenoy says the actual kidney transplant surgery is short in comparison to the wait for a kidney.

"At any given time there's more than 95,000 people in the U.S. alone waiting for a kidney."

About 16,000 kidney transplants are being done per year.

"People have to wait," said Dr. Shenoy. "Out of those 16,000, 9,000 kidneys come from deceased donors. Around 6,000 or 7,000 kidneys come from living donors."

So people who are lucky enough to get a living donor kidney tend to get a transplant much faster than those who don't. Because of a shortage of donor kidneys, each year only a small percentage of people who need a transplant actually receive a kidney. The National Kidney Foundation estimates that about 67,000 people die of kidney failure every year.

"Yeah, it's a bit unusual that friends and colleagues come forward," added Dr. Shenoy.

That's why this act of kindness is so amazing. Donating a kidney is a life changing event, especially for someone who's on dialysis.

"Anybody who knows anybody or who's been on dialysis understands that their lives are completely dependent on a dialysis machine," said Dr. Doyle. "They're tied to dialysis, they can't swim, if they go on vacation they have to bring all their dialysis equipment with them, so it's a huge life impingement."

And that is why the recipient, their family, and friends will be forever grateful.

"I'll never forget her," said Honeycutt. "I'll always be there for her like I am Jami. I kind of think of her as a daughter almost."

From None to One: Woman Offers Kidney to Her Friend, Part I
It's a Match: Woman Offers Kidney to Her Friend, Part II

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