{"id":989857,"date":"2026-08-08T22:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989857\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:41:12","slug":"phoenix-firefighter-donates-kidney-to-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989857\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix firefighter donates kidney to husband"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SURPRISE, Ariz.<\/strong> – Firefighters dedicate their lives to saving strangers, but when a first responder in Surprise needing saving himself, the hero turned out to be his own wife.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Madison Greer and Robert Coleman Jr. met in the gym, but their lifestyles brought them together.<\/p>\n

“We found out that we both had the same dream of becoming a firefighter, so I kind of used that as my way in to ask her out, basically,” Coleman told Fox 10.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

That dream was soon realized, with Madison joining the Phoenix Fire Department and Robert going to Surprise.<\/p>\n

“It works very well,” Coleman said, “because we can just talk to each other about what we’re going through.”<\/p>\n

What Happened:<\/p>\n

The couple married in September 2025, but months before, Robert was diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney disease, having to go on dialysis soon after.<\/p>\n

“I’m 31 years old, and it’s not a life that you want to live,” Coleman said. “That’s when we started really searching for a transplant donor,” Greer said.<\/p>\n

Match Made:<\/p>\n

Madison applied to see if she was a match, desperate to see her husband return to the man she knew.<\/p>\n

“Just everything he loved kind of just started to stop, so it was heartbreaking for me just to see that, just [be]cause I know how active he is,” Greer said. “I got the call, and I was a direct donor match for him.”<\/p>\n

The weeks leading up to the surgery were emotional.<\/p>\n

“How would I feel if something happened to my wife when she was trying to help me?” Coleman said.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

But Madison was determined.<\/p>\n

“The one thing that just stuck out the most for me was, he’s going to get better tomorrow,” Greer said. “Once I saw the smile on his face, I was just like, he just looks like a new person, like the person I met when I first met him.”<\/p>\n

“As soon as they rolled me into her room and she just lit up. It just made me feel complete at that point,” Coleman said.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The couple says their lives have only improved since.<\/p>\n

“It’s just such a huge relief that we can, just like, live life again,” Greer said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d like everyone to know how life-changing kidney donation can be. “Maddie literally gave me a second shot at life,” Coleman said.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

After they\u2019re fully recovered, Robert and Madison say they\u2019re looking forward to going back to work, traveling, and just enjoying life again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

Family members have started a GoFundMe<\/strong><\/a> to help with medical expenses.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Information in this report was gathered from Surprise firefighter Robert Coleman Jr., Phoenix firefighter Madison Greer, and a family GoFundMe page.<\/p>\n

Health<\/a>Surprise<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SURPRISE, Ariz. – Firefighters dedicate their lives to saving strangers, but when a first responder in Surprise needing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":989858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,210,1588,50,1589,22672,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-989857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-health","tag-maricopa-county","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-surprise","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117062302961624012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}