Here’s what Twitter addicts everywhere already know: Twitter isn’t just a social media tool, it’s a lifestyle. Spend a certain amount of regular time on the website interacting with folks and if the stars align, you’ll find yourself with a good group of friends, a search engine more specialized than Google, a date or two, news in real time and much more. But for one person, Twitter may literally be a life-saver.

I’ve been following Arizona-based Kirti Dwivedi on Twitter for over a year now and her updates about her parents, who she lovingly tweets about as #TinyMom and #TinyDad, have always brought a smile to my face. But I didn’t know that Kirti’s mother has been suffering from kidney disease for the last 10 years and that she desperately needed a kidney transplant. On Sunday, while absent-mindedly playing with my phone, I saw this tweet from Kirti, “What has social media done for you? It helped me find a kidney donor for my mom…”

Turns out that Kirti, being the social media addict she is, turned to Twitter and Facebook to see if she could find a kidney donor for #TinyMom. Kirti told me via email, “Unfortunately, neither my brother nor I are blood type matches for my mother.” Neither was #TinyDad. After Amy Donohue, one of Kirti’s Twitter friends, checked out the informational Facebook page Kirti had created, Amy offered to donate her own kidney.

Anu Dwivedi’s daughter, Kirti, is the one who brought the two together. She started a Facebook page educating people about her mother’s kidney disease. Eventually, Kirti started chatting with Amy Donohue via Twitter about the Facebook page, and their friendship progressed to phone calls. One day, Donohue told her something she’ll never forget. 

”Her words to me were, ‘You have two kidneys. I have one mom. So, let me see how I can help you out,'” Kirti said. [Link.]Feel free to start getting teary any minute now. It’s okay, I did. Check out more video of the gals, here. “I hope that more people can turn to social media as a resource to help improve their lives! ” says Kirti. Preach it, lady.

You can find Amy on twitter @TheFabulousOne and Kirti on Twitter at @DiyaMarketing. To support Kirti, Amy and Kirti’s mom and to get regular updates, visit the Kidney Disease & My Tiny Mother Facebook page. Best of luck to Kirti’s mother and the rest of her family and to Amy and her selflessness. Lady, my hat goes off to you. Behold, the power of social media.

*Note: Just an FYI, according to Kirti, the original Fox News story, which had the following line: “‘You have two kidneys. I have one mom. So, let me see how I can help you out,'” Kirti said,” reversed the quote.

Kirti told me it should read ‘I have two kidneys, you have one mom.”