LEWISTON, Maine — Pamela Grenier prayed for a miracle when she found out her daughter had significant bleeding in her brain.
Pamela's mother died from the same complication.
"It was like the same thing over again," said Grenier. "My mother, and now my daughter."
Pamela's daughter, Maghan Urquhart Flores, died on April 29 from a brain aneurysm just four days after she fell and hit her head.
Doctors did everything they could, but the bleeding in her brain did not stop, severely damaging Maghan's brain stem.
At the same time, Pamela was preparing to begin dialysis due to kidney failure. Her kidneys were only working 10 percent.
When doctors met with Pamela, her daughter, Molly, and Maghan's stepfather, Rick, they learned that Maghan was an organ donor.
"Wouldn't it be nice if I could have one of her kidneys?" Pamela blurted out. "At first I didn't think it was going to happen."
RELATED: Kidney donor, 81, provides new hope
Pamela found out she was a match. It was not her first time receiving a transplant. She received a new liver in 2013.
In a matter of hours from finding out she was a match, Maghan's kidney had been transported from Maine Medical Center to Lahey Hospital in Burlington, Mass. where Pamela was undergoing treatment.
"It was the first time I had ever gone into surgery scared. My children have already lost a sister. They could not lose their mother," said Grenier.
The transplant was a success. Now, Pamela carries her daughter with her in more than just her memory.
"She gave me life. I gave her life and then she gave it back to me," said Grenier.
The doctors were able to get Pamela out of surgery and to her daughter's funeral services the following Saturday.
Despite the toll Maghan's death has taken on her family, including her husband and high school sweetheart, and her 16-year-old daughter, Molly said the outcome has helped their family cope.
"I think it's what my family needed to help the grieving process," said Pamela's daughter, Molly Grenier. "It's a blessing, a silver lining, some kind of miracle."
Doctors told Maghan's family that she saved more than 12 people's lives by donating her organs.
According a monthly organ donor report from the Secretary of State's office from April 2019, 57 percent of people across the state elected to be donors.
According to Donate Life New England, more than 120,000 people are currently on the transplant waitlist, and every 12 minutes, a new person is added. The website said 21 people die every day waiting for a new organ.
Statistics from the National Kidney Foundation show that 107 people in Maine were waiting for a kidney in 2018.
People can wait on donation lists for months, but the Grenier's said that Maghan's husband signed a form to gift the kidney to Pamela, expediting the process.
Now, Maghan's family is asking for financial support for her husband and daughter through a Go Fund Me page.
"It doesn't seem real," said Molly. "You don't hear 'my sister died and that saved my mom's life.' Now to not have her here to see my mom doing so well is kind of bittersweet. It brought our family together in a way that I've never experienced."
"I want to be healthy for her. She gave me this second life. I want to make sure I do it right," said Pamela.