Young Gwinnett woman passes away after fighting kidney disease for years

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County woman has passed away after her battle with kidney disease and heart disease, her family says.

Channel 2 Action News first introduced you to Ramonie Smith in 2018 when she was just 16 years old.

The teenage girl was searching for a new kidney for the second time in her young life.

Her family says she passed away on Oct. 31 “from a long battle with kidney and heart disease and finally a stroke.”

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“She was a bright light, a warrior, and the sweetest most thoughtful person you could meet. She always found love to pour into others even in the midst of her own suffering,” her family wrote.

Smith lived with a rare kidney disease called Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS. She received a kidney transplant at the age of 5, but the illness retuned and she found herself in need of another transplant.

At one point, her mother said Smith was on 164 doses of medication a week.

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“If I don’t do it, I die. If I do it, I live, so I gotta do it,” Smith said.

Billboards went up across metro Atlanta in 2018 in the hopes of finding Smith a new kidney, but because of her illness, only one percent of the population would be a match for her.

The family has established a GoFundMe campaign to help offset funeral costs.

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