Montgomery County’s Kaitlyn Wagner didn’t think twice about helping her friend and field hockey teammate Ashley Renshaw when she learned Renshaw, a teacher near Pottstown, needed a liver transplant, writes Stephanie Stahl for CBS News Philadelphia.

She immediately started testing to be a living donor. Living donor liver transplants are complicated surgeries where a donor gives a part of the liver. The process requires months of recovery, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to share her liver with her friend.

Renshaw learned that her liver was damaged from a rare blood disorder after struggling with extreme fatigue.

“Out of the blue, I had no idea I had anything wrong with me. I thought it was just working-mom-tired,” she said.

Dr. Ashesh Shah of Jefferson Health performed the liver transplant. He explained that the liver can regenerate itself so that both halves can grow to accommodate the needs of both the recipient and the donor.

A year and a half after the transplant and the two friends are both recovered and now sport matching tattoos over their surgical scars as a reminder of their unbreakable bond.

The tattoos say, “She whispered back; we are the storm.” The friends say they truly weathered a storm together.

Read their full story at CBS News Philadelphia.

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More on living donor liver transplants.