A 20-year-old Tampa woman ended up in the hospital about a month ago—only to find out she was dying.
Doctors told Nyara Knight she had stage 5 chronic kidney disease and needed an organ transplant.
“It feels really good knowing I’m not here by myself, because that could be hard sometimes,” Knight said.
Knight’s boss, Sylvia Alvarez, came to visit her at Tampa General Hospital on Friday morning.
Knight said her managers and co-workers were her family helping her get through this difficult time in her life.
“They always help me when I need it,” Knight said.
Alvarez said Knight needed all the help she could get, while trying to get better.
“She has no insurance, you know, she was part-time. But in addition to that I’m hoping to bring awareness to her plight, so that in turn maybe there’s someone out there that hears this story and is able to be a donor,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez, who heads up the Housing and Education Alliance, a non-profit in Tampa, said Knight first started consistently calling out of work about a year ago; now it makes her sick to know what Knight is going through in the hospital.
“She is like an adopted daughter, we’ve been fighting this battle with her since it started and we will be with her until we get a resolution and make sure that she’s alright and then can come back; we need to put her to work!” Alvarez said with a laugh.
But, as of Friday, Knight was only working on getting better, and holding out hope she would get a new kidney.
“I know I’m going to be OK, but it gets hard sometimes,” Knight said.
Click here for more information on helping Knight.
