TAMPA, Fla. — She is an actress and model, but for Tampa’s Brianna Borello, beauty is not skin deep. It lives within her, thanks to a boy who gave her the gift of life.
When Brianna was in middle school, she began noticing changes in her health. “I started to gain a lot of weight. My cholesterol was really high. They were concerned I was going to have a heart attack in eighth grade,” she said.
It was not until three years later that a biopsy confirmed she had kidney disease.
“My feet and legs were just really swollen," Brianna added.
From ages 16 to 22, prednisone slowed the progression.
“I was on multiple steroids," she said. “My creatinine levels were really, really bad."
In June of 2014, Brianna went into kidney failure.
Three days a week, for 2 ½ years, Brianna was on dialysis.
“The machine becomes your life because your body can’t do it anymore. Without that machine, I wouldn’t, nobody would be living who’s on dialysis. You’re completely reliant on it. You have to do it or you will die," she explained.
While Briana studied at the University of South Florida, she continued her acting classes. But the real life drama was about to begin.
“I had a blood infection and what I was experiencing was sepsis and sepsis is your body’s way of telling you that you are about to die," she said.
The clock was ticking for Brianna to find a kidney donor.
“Time was not in my favor. Once I was on dialysis, there was no guarantee of when my last day was gonna be. When you’re on dialysis, you need a donor," she said.
In 2016, a five-year-old boy named Emmanuel would forever change Brianna’s world. From the moment he was born, Emmanuel Gutierrez faced enormous medical challenges. Children with his condition rarely live to adulthood.
“There’s not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t think of him,” Brianna said. “He was born with craniofacial anomalies. He had had so many surgeries in his young, little life."
After surgery in 2016, Emmanuel went into a coma and never woke up. A close family friend of Brianna knew the Gutierrez family and told them about Brianna’s need for a kidney.
“They wanted to directly donate to me. I was not active on the transplant list, so I could not receive a direct donation," she explained.
Because Brianna had been recovering from sepsis, she had not completed a psychiatric evaluation. She worried it was her only chance of a kidney donor.
“In my head, I’m like, there’s not going to be a next time,” Brianna said.
Brianna said after her doctors intervened, she was approved to receive Emmanuel’s five-year-old kidneys.
“Emmanuel gave me the greatest gift that you could give somebody, and that is the second chance at life. I have a part of him in me," she said.
Emmanuel is a Biblical name that means, “God is with us.” Faith played a major role in Brianna’s journey.
“Now that I have this second chance at life, I have Emmanuel’s kidneys which means Jesus, which means God is with us. So that faith is what keeps me going," Brianna said.
Today, Brianna is off dialysis and resuming an active life.
“Transplant’s not a cure. It’s not. I still have to take medication twice a day.”
But she is back in front of the camera with a message of hope for those who are still waiting.
“It might not sound like it right now, but things will get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I found the light and I want to share that light," Brianna said.
If you would like to consider being an organ donor, you can visit the website: https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up