'I can't stop crying': Daughter secretly becomes dad's kidney donor

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- A Missouri dad has a new lease on life, thanks to his daughter.

She gave him her kidney -- but she kept the entire process a secret, because at first he wouldn't allow her to do it.

"I mean, I was upset but I'm so grateful," said John Ivanowski. "I mean, it's just -- it's just hard to describe."

Hard to describe but the emotion on John's face says everything.

"I can't stop crying," he said.

"He goes, 'I knew you were up to something' and I said, 'Well, I'm always up to something," John's daughter, Delayne Ivanowski said.

That something began brewing in Delayne's mind more than a year ago after doctors told her father he had an immunoglobulin, which is a deficiency causing an overactive immune system to attack his kidneys.

"From there, it's just been dialysis every couple of days since then. So for over a year, he's been hooked up to a machine for three, four, five hours a day. So then my first thought was, why can't he just have my kidney right now," Delayne said.

John was against it, KMOV reported.

"I didn't want her kidney. I'm like, you're too young, you've got a long time to be here," he said.

But Delayne had other ideas.

"I don't even remember how I got his coordinator's phone number, and I reached out to her and I was like, 'Hey, how can I do this, when can we start?' And then as soon as he was good enough basically for the transplant, they started running me through a bunch of tests," she said.

It was eight months of secrecy, all leading to this moment on February 16.

"I didn't find out until the day of surgery after we were post-op," John said. "She opened the door and came through and I was just like, oh my Lord."

It's a moment tugging at millions of heartstrings after Delayne posted the video on TikTok, asking each of her followers to donate a dollar for her family's medical costs.

"I thought, why not reach out to like social media and I got a way bigger response than I ever was expecting to," Delayne said.

"I'm so grateful not to be hooked up to the machine anymore, and be able to do what I need to do or what I want to do, you know. It's just gonna be -- it's a big relief," John said.

This father is not only relieved but taking a new lease of life, thanks to his daughter.

"It is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give," Delayne said.