Air Force vet becomes two-time living organ donor

Lindsay Gutierrez never planned on joining the military. Raised in Oklahoma with dreams of working in special effects makeup, she earned her bachelor’s degree in theater and set her sights on Hollywood. But life rarely follows the script.

By 2009, she was living paycheck to paycheck in California, sharing a small space with a former softball teammate and wondering how to build a future out of sporadic freelance gigs.

Her grandfather, a former Air Force airman, had quietly planted seeds years before, telling her that military service could open doors she hadn’t yet imagined. In 2010, she decided to listen.

“I never imagined joining the military — I’m confident in admitting it was never on my radar,” Gutierrez said. “But I wanted stability and purpose. So I enlisted.”

She made the age acceptance cutoff just in time and shipped off to basic training. Over the course of six years in the Air Force, she became a Security Forces member, deployed to Qatar and Djibouti and traveled extensively across Europe and Africa. She learned to lead, to adapt and to thrive in uncertainty. She also met her husband, Anthony, in 2013, marrying him two years later and beginning the familiar cycle of separations and reunions that come with military life.

But while on deployment in 2014, everything changed.

A vehicle accident left her with an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury. Though she completed her enlistment honorably, Gutierrez spent nearly three years after discharge grappling with unemployment, confusion and health challenges no one could see.

“Nobody was talking about mental health or the different challenges,” she recalled. “After my diagnosis by the VA and talking with fellow veterans with a similar story, it made me feel fortunate to know that I am not alone.”

Eventually, she was diagnosed with a TBI, and with that clarity came a new mission. She returned to school, earning her second master’s degree (she completed her first while on active duty), and is now pursuing her doctorate of social work.

Her focus: fighting for better care and awareness for veterans navigating invisible wounds.

For many, that journey would have been enough. But Gutierrez has never done anything halfway.

In 2022, a conversation with a friend about organ donation sparked a new interest. A few months later, her boss handed her a copy of Military Times with an advertisement for Donor Outreach for Veterans, a nonprofit that connects veterans in need of kidney transplants with living donors.

“I knew I had to act,” she said.

On May 25, 2022, she donated her left kidney altruistically to a fellow veteran. The experience was profound. But for Gutierrez, it didn’t end there.

Less than two years later, she underwent a second surgery, this time donating 40% of her liver to an anonymous recipient.

“I’m now one of only about 280 people in the United States — just 0.000084% of the population — who have become dual living organ donors,” Gutierrez explained. “It’s a statistic that reflects not just rarity, but the incredible potential each of us has to give life. I would love to see this number grow exponentially to where it’s not a rarity, but the norm for people to become living donors.”

Living donation, she insists, is safer and more achievable than many realize. After each surgery, her body adapted and healed. Her remaining kidney grew to compensate for the loss of the other. Her liver regenerated within weeks. Today, she lives an active, healthy life with no limitations.

In March 2023, just ten months after her kidney donation, she climbed Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Reaching the summit after about four days, including an eight-hour hike to the summit on the fifth day, she felt a deeper appreciation for what the human body can endure.

“That to me was a new challenge,” Gutierrez said. “I didn’t know until I was finished that it’s even harder for people who are missing those organs, because of the oxygen levels depleting with the higher elevation. The kidneys use a high amount of oxygen to function. But it was the most beautiful experience, seeing the curve of the earth and the sun rising.”

She is candid about the questions people ask her. What if you or your family ever needs a kidney? What if you get sick? To Gutierrez, those hypotheticals never outweighed the certainty that someone else would die without her help.

“The pain was temporary. For somebody else, it was a lifetime,” she said.

That clarity comes from her belief in service — a value that didn’t end when she hung up her uniform.

“Everything I have done since leaving the military is an extension of that mindset,” she said. “I loved my time, and I wish I could have done more. Now I get to keep serving in other ways.”

She has also become an advocate for organ donation awareness. Most Americans are unaware they can be living donors or understand how safe the process has become. She hopes her story will open the door to more conversations and ultimately save more lives.

“Awareness saves lives,” Gutierrez said. “When people see a real-life example, it makes the idea real.”

Through Donor Outreach for Veterans, she learned veterans face additional hurdles when it comes to transplants. Chronic stress, toxic exposures and service-related injuries increase the risk of organ failure. At the same time, VA policies and limited access to transplant centers often result in long waits. That’s why donating to a fellow veteran carried extra meaning.

Her advocacy doesn’t stop at the hospital door. Now pursuing her doctorate, Gutierrez plans to focus her research on long-term care, education and support systems for living donors and veterans awaiting transplants.

“There’s not a system for long-term psychosocial follow-up care,” she explained. “I want to help change that.”

If there’s a single thread running through all she’s accomplished — from deployments to organ donation to academic research — it’s the conviction that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Whether saving lives through surgery or helping a fellow veteran navigate paperwork, she believes service is a lifelong commitment.

“You don’t have to give an organ,” she said. “You can give your time, your resources, your kindness. But when you take that step to help someone, you change their story forever.”

Among all her milestones, she still calls her two donations the greatest honor of her life. And it all started with a magazine on her desk, the one issue of Military Times that carried an ad she believes was meant for her.

“I really fully believe this was a God thing,” Gutierrez said. “It was pretty astronomical. Had it not been for that, I wouldn’t be here today.”