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Woman diagnosed with Turner syndrome gets kidney transplant after more than 3-year wait

By CNN

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    ELKRIDGE, Maryland (WMAR) — Shaye Tillett of Elkridge has been waiting more than three years for a kidney transplant. Thursday, July 23rd, she gets one.

Tillett was diagnosed with Turner syndrome as a baby and, a few years ago, received a second diagnosis: polycystic kidney disease. Finding a donor proved difficult because of her rare blood type, O negative.

“I actually found out a few weeks ago that one of my medications was actually something that had affected my, my kidneys as well,” Tillett said.

In April, her family received the news they had been waiting for. A donor had been found, and Tillett’s surgery was scheduled for July 23.

The donor remains anonymous.

“The person is still anonymous. I do not know who they are. I am very excited, excited about all that’s coming up,” Tillett said.

Despite not knowing — and possibly never knowing — who is giving her a kidney, Tillett said she is deeply grateful.

“I really am. I’m grateful that they took the time to do this and they’re being able, they’re able to take, not just take the time to do it, but also changed my life,” Tillett said.

The months leading up to the surgery have brought a mix of emotions and preparation. Tillett has kept up with lab work and blood work related to her Turner syndrome diagnosis and has also focused on her mental health ahead of the procedure.

“With my mom, knowing that she’s been through the same thing, I’ve always, I’ve been asking her questions,” Tillett said.

She said the support she has received has meant everything.

“I was blessed, to be honest. I was very blessed to hear that people were not just keeping me in their prayers, but wanting to help and do anything they can to help me,” Tillett said.

Tillett said she hopes her story can encourage others who may be facing a similar situation.

“Never lose hope. Keep that faith, never lose hope and always always remember that you have people by your side,” Tillett said.

Tillett is expected to be released from the hospital four days after her surgery and will be on bed rest for two months.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WMAR verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Why no one knows what to expect from the Fed decision today

By CNN
Washington (CNN) — The Federal Reserve has been unusually silent about the future path of interest rates, with Chairman Kevin Warsh offering few signals as policymakers grapple with renewed inflation concerns and a murkier economic outlook.Fed officials will have a chance to clarify their thinking when they announce their latest rate decision at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, followed by Warsh’s post-meeting news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.Inflation slowed sharply in June, according to the latest Consumer Price Index, largely due to lower energy prices that month as tensions briefly eased in the war with Iran. The encouraging inflation report prompted investors to scale back expectations that the Fed would need to raise interest rates for the first time since July 2023 in order to keep price pressures in check.But the conflict in the Middle East escalated earlier this month, triggering a spike in global energy prices last week. Tensions have eased in recent days, prompting energy prices to decline accordingly. However, shipping through two key waterways — the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz — remains subdued. Nearly a quarter of the world’s oil flows through the region. Meanwhile, Fed officials are debating how the rapid adoption of AI could impact inflation.The economic crosscurrents have made it difficult to understand where inflation is headed. Compounding that uncertainty, Warsh has declined to offer clear guidance on interest rates. Ahead of this week’s policy meeting, markets are split on whether the Fed will hold its benchmark lending rate steady for the fifth consecutive time or deliver a rate hike.It’s a lack of clarity not seen in years.“The Fed is looking at all these inflationary impulses and determining if they will be there over the longer term,” Narayana Kocherlakota, an economics professor at the University of Rochester and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told CNN.“But it’s becoming very difficult to know what the Fed is going to do in the next few months, because Chair Warsh has been studiously uncommunicative about how the Fed is going to react to these changes in economic conditions,” Kocherlakota said.‘A complete unforced error’Warsh has long signaled that he intended to ditch a long-held practice known as “forward guidance.”Since 2000, Fed officials have generally used forward guidance to give investors a clearer sense of where interest rates were headed, arguing that greater transparency makes monetary policy more effective. But in his confirmation hearing in April, Warsh said he wouldn’t speculate on the economy’s path as chairman.With the Fed’s next move still an open question, it’s unclear whether Warsh’s break from decades of Fed communication has reduced — or amplified — uncertainty.“It’s going to lead to market volatility,” said Kocherlakota. “It makes businesses more reluctant to invest, meaning they’ll be less likely to demand workers to build the kinds of goods and services … because they’re uncertain about what the Fed is going to be doing.”“That kind of uncertainty, in my view, is a complete unforced error on the part of the Fed,” he added.On the other hand, some argue that Fed officials have in recent years spoken too frequently about the economy.“We got to a point where the dissection of the Fed’s forward guidance was so acutely broken down into parts that I’m not sure it helped in the way it was meant to help either,” said Kezia Samuel, chief market strategist at wealth management firm AssetMark.Risks of higher inflationFed officials largely agree that the central bank shouldn’t respond to higher energy prices with interest rate hikes because those costs are expected to come down on their own.“Conventional wisdom among central bankers is to look through one-time price increases, such as those associated with higher tariffs and a jump in oil prices,” Fed Governor Christopher Waller said this month.However, if price pressures persist, there’s a far greater the risk that inflation broadens well beyond the energy market. That could begin to erode Americans’ faith that inflation will eventually slow toward the Fed’s 2% annual target.To get a sense of inflation’s direction, central bankers focus on so-called core measures of inflation that strip out volatile food and energy prices. Core inflation gives economists and policymakers a good sense of how persistent price pressures may be, and to gauge Americans’ view of prices, officials look at market- and survey-based measures of inflation expectations.Neither of those measures warrant imminent rate hikes, but that could change if the Iran war spirals out of control or persists for an extended period.Meanwhile, Fed officials are closely watching Big Tech’s massive spending on AI data centers, which was discussed at the Fed’s June policy meeting.“Many participants noted that ongoing strong demand for AI infrastructure would likely sustain upward pressure on prices for technology products and electricity,” the meeting’s minutes read. “Most participants remarked that growth in economic activity that exceeded that of potential output, owing in part to strong AI business investment, could contribute to more persistent inflationary pressures.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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