Amy Grant's daughter donates kidney to best friend

NASHVILLE — The oldest daughter of Amy Grant donated a kidney to her best friend earlier this week, and if all continues going well both of them could be out of the hospital by the end of the week.

The surgery was a success, Grant's spokesperson said. Gloria "Millie" Mills Chapman, 27, who now lives in New York City, and her friend, Kathryn Dudley of Nashville, are recovering in a hospital here after the Tuesday transplant.

Grant’s manager, Jennifer Cooke, posted a photo of the singer in the hospital’s waiting room Tuesday with the caption: “Grateful momma bear to hear surgery went well.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Millie Chapman’s father, Gary Chapman, posted on Facebook: "Millie is out of surgery and everything is looking good. She'll be hurting for awhile but healing is under way. Kat is in recovery as well. Thank you all for your prayers and kindness. God is good."

Dudley was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis at age 13 and has been a transplant list since 2014, she told WKRN-TV, Nashville.

“The parts of the kidneys, the tubes, they scar," Dudley told the TV station Wednesday. "So I basically just kind have little tiny rocks for kidneys. They don’t work.”

More than a dozen people die each day awaiting a kidney transplant, and every 14 minutes another person is added to the transplant list, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Almost 30% of those who decide to donate a kidney are age 18 to 34, but fewer than 20% of recipients age 18 to 34 get organs live donors.

In a note Monday, Gary Chapman said that his daughter and Dudley had known each other their entire lives. When Dudley needed help, his daughter stepped up and “was a perfect match.”

Both learned they have O-positive blood types, the first of three steps toward a match.

“I'm so proud of her, words fail me,” he wrote. “Please say a prayer for them both and trust, with me, that they are in His hands.”

As of mid-January, almost 122,000 people were on the transplant list, the National Kidney Foundation said. In 2014, the most recent information available, a little more than 17,000 transplants took place, and about a third were from live donors.

Millie Chapman could be discharged from the hospital as early as Thursday, and Dudley could go home Friday.

"We are so proud of Millie's selfless act of friendship, and are grateful that both girls are doing well," she wrote Wednesday on Facebook.