Bijou Phillips gets successful kidney transplant after urgent donor plea

Bijou Phillips said a kidney exchange chain found her a perfect match and that the transplant was a success after her public plea drew more than 1,000 donor applications. The 45-year-old said the ordeal had left her hospitalized and back on dialysis after complications from her first kidney transplant, turning a personal emergency into a rare public glimpse at how living-donor matching works.

Phillips first revealed in February that she was urgently seeking a living donor while under care at UCLA Health with Dr. Anjay Rastogi. She said she had been born with underdeveloped kidneys and spent her first three months in the neonatal intensive care unit on dialysis. Her first transplant came in 2017, when she was 36, and Phillips said her friend Chris Wadhams was the donor. That transplant, she said, gave her about eight precious years with her daughter, Fianna.

The need for another transplant returned after Phillips said BK virus triggered both cellular and antibody rejection following the earlier surgery. In the same period, she said she was under heavy financial strain, saying her first transplant had been covered only after a fight with SAG-AFTRA Health Plan and that she faced massive medical bills. Phillips also said she was leaning on family and friends, including her siblings and her boyfriend, businessman Jamie Mazur, as she waited for a match.

Phillips said her outreach brought in more than 1,000 donor applications, while Kathy Hilton said nearly 1,000 people had signed up to be potential donors, although not every volunteer could be matched to her.

Phillips said her brother Aron Wilson ultimately donated through a kidney exchange voucher program, which helped set off a chain that located the right match.