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Registration 500009376 500009377 A Whitby mom who survived massive organ failure after giving birth to her premature daughter a year ago has an organ donor to thank for her new life. And she owes it all to a chance meeting with a complete stranger on a Mexican honeymoon. Katie Freeman was the lucky recipient of a desperately needed kidney transplant July 11 after Tyler Rosen stepped up to donate his kidney. But there is much more to the story than that. Katie, 29, nearly died Aug. 12, 2021, after giving birth three months early to daughter Palmer, when she suffered a rare amniotic fluid embolism and went into multiple organ failure. The health care staff at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto were able to save Katie, but her kidneys were severely damaged and she spent nearly 40 days in hospital. Her daughter, born at just 2.5 pounds, needed 100 days of time in the hospital's newborn intensive care unit (NICU). After Katie was released, she and husband, Scott, 34, had to spend multiple days in hospital visiting Palmer -- or with Katie on dialysis for hours three days a week. By last November, after Scott put out a request on Facebook for an organ donor, they received a call from Rosen, who they'd remained in touch with since they met him in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, three years earlier while the Freemans were on their honeymoon and Rosen was vacationing at the same resort. "Tyler called me and said, 'Scott, you're never going to believe this, but I signed up a month ago to donate my kidney anonymously.'" It wasn't even the first organ donation for Rosen, who had donated part of his liver just after the trip to Cabo three years earlier. The Freemans found out Rosen was going to donate his liver anonymously while on their honeymoon and were so impressed with his selflessness they established a friendship with him. The friends stayed in touch on social media over the years with the Freemans cheering him on through the liver donation and after. "He (Rosen) ended up being the perfect match (for Katie)," said Scott, who works as a firefighter in Ajax. It took months to arrange the surgery at Toronto General Hospital due to the onset of the Omicron COVID-19 virus amid other factors, but Scott said Rosen never wa-vered in his desire to donate his kidney to Katie. "He did it. He was ready to drop his life at the drop of a hat. There were little bumps along the way but there was no way he'd change," said Scott and Rosen. And the winter was tough for the Freemans who couldn't get any help at home with baby Palmer due to concerns over COVID-19 exposure. Katie, too, through her vulnerability because she was on dialysis for her damaged kidney, was forced into isolation. "We had a mundane, gruelling winter. We got our baby home in November but we had to wait until she was bigger and stronger until February," said Scott about any visitors to come to their Whitby house. Things improved in the spring for the family and by July everybody was ready for the transplant to take place. To help cover all the financial costs Rosen would face including extra expenses related to travel, parking, overnight accommodations, time off work for appointments, time off work for a long recovery and many other additional add-ons Scott launched a Go Fund Me page July 9. It was so successful that it shot well beyond its $15,000 target quickly raising $32,909 from 246 donations. All the funds were donated to Rosen, 32, to fully cover his expenses. "If the world had more Tylers in it, the world would be a better place," Scott said. "He's a two-time organ donor. He's a miraculous person you don't come across often. He literally saved my life and gave me a chance to raise my daughter," said Katie about Rosen. Katie and Palmer are both doing well, with Katie's only restriction that she can't lift anything over 10 pounds -- including her baby for three months. And Rosen has just returned to work. "There are a lot of coincidences. Everybody thinks we were supposed to meet for a reason. He (Rosen) ended up being our quickest route to health and getting our lives back," said Scott. 2-TIME ORGAN DONOR LIGHTS UP LIFE OF NEW WHITBY MOM TIM KELLY tkelly@durhamregion.com NEWS "He's a miraculous person you don't come across often. He literally saved my life and gave me a chance to raise my daughter." - Katie Freeman Katie Freeman experienced a rare and traumatic Amniotic Fluid Embolism just moments after delivering her daughter, Palmer, leaving her with irreversible kidney failure. Jason Liebregts/Metroland