Clear the List, a documentary detailing the largest domino transplant in hospital history that included Columbia’s own Tamira Harvey, will be showcased Saturday at The Klassy Venue at 5 p.m.
The documentary was made by Pioneer Productions at the request of University of Mississippi Medical Center and highlights the 14-way kidney swap that made history. The documentary is an official selection of the Jxn Film Festival and has been submitted to eight other festivals around the country.
Three years ago, Tamira Harvey was exhausted, lost and, above all else, scared. After experiencing scary symptoms, the then 26-year-old was diagnosed with a deadly kidney disease and had just weeks to live without treatment. But after two brutally long years of being poked and prodded, going through dialysis and waiting for a call she wasn’t sure was going to come, she finally got her miracle.
Harvey was initially hospitalized in December 2021 with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure, which occurs when the gradual loss of kidney function reaches an advanced state, according to the Mayo Clinic. Before going to the hospital, she felt extremely fatigued, was vomiting black and simply could not function. She said her blood pressure was at stroke level, and she had to have four blood transfusions.
She was also diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a disease caused by scar tissue developing on the small parts of the kidneys that filter waste from the blood, according to the Mayo Clinic. Her disease had progressed so much that her doctors said she could have died within weeks without medical intervention.
Harvey said she was placed on three different transplant lists at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans and University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). After two years of waiting and not knowing whether that life-saving call was ever going to come, it took just two months of being on UMMC’s transplant list for the Jackson hospital to call with a living donor for Harvey.
She never expected she would be lucky enough to get a living donor, though. That was going to take exceptional generosity by a complete stranger. Little did she know that history was being made behind the scenes.
It all started when UMMC was approached by an altruistic donor, someone who is willing to donate to a complete stranger while getting nothing in return. UMMC, according to a documentary, saw the opportunity to pull off what is known as a domino surgery. That is a series of surgeries where multiple donors, who cannot donate to their loved one, donate to someone else’s relative or friend and a chain is built.
This domino surgery, which Harvey was a recipient in, became the largest in the hospital’s history with 14 participants — seven donors, seven recipients.
As terrifying and exhausting as it was to wait on a kidney while undergoing dialysis three times a week for three-and-a-half hours at a time, Harvey tried to remain positive throughout the process rather than drive herself crazy with worry.
The day before Thanksgiving, at 7:37 a.m., Harvey got the call that she will never forget. She fell to her knees and thanked God when she was told they had a kidney for her. She spent the next few hours crying hysterically in disbelief that there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.
“I didn’t have anyone that was willing to go through the process to give me a kidney, so to get a call that I had a living donor was really mind blowing to me. It shows how God covers his people,” she said.
Harvey had her transplant surgery on Dec. 12, 2023 and felt pure joy when she woke up from surgery. The process went far better than she could have imagined, and, at long last, she had a functioning kidney.
“I feel like a new person. I’m so refreshed,” she explained. “Normally I’m an angry, grouchy person when I wake up in the morning because I’m down and tired, but now I just pop up and have energy. It’s just a fresh feeling.”
Harvey encourages anyone awaiting a transplant to never give up because God always has a plan.
“God worked a miracle in my life, so I know He can do it for anybody else,” she said.
A West Marion High School graduate, Harvey attended Pearl River Community College and earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice. After attending William Carey, Harvey intends to finish her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Southern Miss.
