As John Gossett’s kidneys failed him, his daughters devised a plan.

They had seen him suffer before and couldn’t bear to see it happen again.

Diabetes had taken a toll on the longtime cardiac nurse’s body and caused his kidneys to fail when his girls were young. Their mom would take them to visit him in the hospital in between soccer tryouts.

After waiting two years for a donor kidney, he had a successful transplant in 2007, but complications eventually caused the donor kidney to start failing in 2016. He had to put his 38-year career at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas on hold.

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His 24-year-old daughter, Erin, who became a transplant nurse at Baylor after seeing the lifesaving care her dad had received over the years, knew that if he could find a living donor, he could be spared the grueling dialysis and the years-long donor waiting list.

The first time John needed a kidney transplant, he was a younger man still able to coach his daughters’ soccer teams and work a full-time job.

But this time, his 61-year-old frame began to wither as the diseased organ sucked the strength from his body. Long, physically demanding shifts at the hospital became arduous. Fluid gathered in his right knee and made walking insufferable.

Erin was all too aware of the severity of her dad’s struggling health and the implications of failing kidneys. It was painful to see the strong, hard-working father she looked up to become so weak.

Erin Gossett gave her father, John, one of her kidneys when his began to fail. "He's done more than I could ever ask for for a dad. This was just kind of scratching the surface on paying him back," she said. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

They used to see each other at work before he got sick, but now her dad was visiting her unit as a patient.

“It was hard to watch. I grew up with him teaching me how to play soccer, but you could tell that he didn’t have much energy or strength anymore," she said.

So she and her sisters quietly hatched a plan to be tested to see if one of them could be a suitable donor.

The oldest daughter was immediately ruled out due to her blood type, but Erin and her twin sister found out they were both a match.

They had additional testing to see if they were identical twins as they had always suspected. If so, that would give them a backup plan if the sister who donated a kidney ever needed one herself. Erin knew this would calm her dad’s fears and make it easier for him to accept the gift.

When the results showed that the sisters are identical and that Erin would be the best donor, it was settled.

“I had no idea they were planning this,” John said. “All of them wanted to be able to donate. It really is truly a touching thing.”

For Erin, the decision was simple.

“I was ready to do it,” she said with her dad’s hand clasped in hers. “He means the world to me. He’s done more than I could ever ask for for a dad. This was just kind of scratching the surface on paying him back.”

Just three days after Erin got engaged, the father and daughter went into surgery May 16 at Baylor.

The transplant went smoothly and the two were transferred to Erin’s unit at the hospital where they were under her colleagues' care.

Erin was up and walking hours after surgery. John’s recovery process was a bit slower, but he noticed immediate improvements. Erin’s kidney worked well, almost too well.

“I’ve lost a lot of fluid weight because the kidney is working so good, so I have to drink a lot of water,” he said. But he welcomes the change.

While the father and daughter continue to recover at home, John works patiently on building his strength. Erin spends her days making sure he eats enough and planning her Dallas wedding with the comfort that her dad will be there to walk her down the aisle.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said John, holding back tears. “It never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be there.”

As he sits in his leather living room chair lifting his arm weights, drinking 3 liters of water and washing down 26 different medications every day, John thinks about the hopes he has for his life after recovery.

He thinks about working out again, going hunting with his friends, getting back to his patients at the hospital and dancing with his daughter on her wedding day. He thinks about getting strength back to his weakened body. And he thinks about Erin, his little girl whose selfless gift will make it all possible.

“How can you not sit here and think this is the best Father’s Day gift you’ll ever have in your life?”