Bridgett Kolls stepped onto the Wrigley Field pitcher’s mound Wednesday in better shape than several Cubs pitchers this baseball season — after all, she’s healthy.

But it wasn’t elbow surgery that healed this Carol Stream fan.

“No, just a kidney transplant surgery,” she said.

Kolls, 29, is nearly six years past a successful kidney transplant on July 8, 2020, at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Now a nursing assistant at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Kolls was voted by her Advocate Health Care colleagues to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday on Health Care Appreciation night at Wrigley.

The Glenbard East High School graduate also is expected to reunite at the ballpark with Chicagoan Thomas Alessio, a White Sox fan who donated a kidney to her nearly six years ago.

“A great guy, especially who would donate a kidney to a stranger, like that’s crazy,” Kolls said. “Super-nice guy, super-caring.”

Diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney disease in April 2017 at just 20 years old, and with the autoimmune disease lupus a year later, Kolls took dialysis treatments three times weekly along with “a ton of medicine” while awaiting a new kidney.

None of her family members was a match for a kidney transplant, and after two life-altering years hoping for a pairing, Kolls took matters into her own hands.

“Once my uncle (John Krueger) gave me some good tickets to a Cubs game, I was like, ‘Hey, this is my opportunity,’” she said.

At a May 2019 game with her brother, Mike, Cubs media photographed Kolls holding a blue sign with her phone number and the message, “This Lil’ Cubbie needs a kidney.” The photo was displayed on the Wrigley Field Jumbotron scoreboard and posted on social media.

Among an outpouring of people wanting to help, Kolls said, Alessio spied the online post and contacted her with the intent to be the donor. He also reached her team at Advocate Christ Medical Center to start the process.

“I’ve always figured that if you’re able to help someone, you have an obligation to do so. I never really had any second doubts; it was just, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing,’” Alessio told the Daily Herald in 2020.

After months of waiting and tests, Alessio was cleared as a match in February 2020. Transplant surgery was scheduled for March, but after two postponements due to COVID-19, the big day came in July.

It has been a success.

“My dear Bridgett, she’s like a model patient,” said Dr. Darshika Chhabra of Oak Brook, a transplant nephrologist, or kidney specialist at Advocate Christ Medical Center, and part of Kolls’ medical team since 2017.

“She’s good at looking after herself. She’s good at not taking things for granted. She’s good at looking after the precious gift of hers,” said Chhabra, who attended a 2022 Cubs game with Kolls, her family, Alessio and Kolls’ health team.

Given a new lease on life, Kolls attends all the Cubs games she can.

Ball games are only part of her new vista. Inspired to help others by her journey, Kolls became a certified nursing assistant through the College of DuPage in 2021 and was hired by Advocate Good Samaritan. Next, she plans to pursue a nursing degree.

She realized a dream in 2021 when she traveled to Boulder, Colorado, where she sent Alessio a photo of her high in the Rocky Mountains.

“I was like, ‘Thank you. Because of you, I was able to do this,’” Kolls said.

Since her transplant, Kolls said, she has more energy than ever.

“Life has been great,” she said.

“Bridgett, I certainly admire her, especially because she’s been through a lot from a young age and she didn’t let it hold her back,” Chhabra said. “I think a lot of it is having that courage to be able to share your story. And she had the courage.”

Kolls summoned that courage on the mound Wednesday in front of some 40,000 people at Wrigley to watch the Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds.

“Hopefully I make it over the plate,” she said before the game.

If nothing else, Kolls cleared a hurdle.

“Don’t just think you’re done at dialysis,” she said. “If you keep trying to spread the word about getting a kidney, you can make it happen and feel much better and have a great life.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20260505/news/go-bridgett-go-cubs-fan-kidney-recipient-to-reunite-with-sox-fan-donor-at-wrigley-field/