RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) – A young Virginia girl has made waves on social media for coming to her father’s aid when he discovered his kidneys were failing.

Kevin Key said he first noticed kidney problems in middle school, but he never had major problems until he contracted COVID-19 in 2020.

The 37-year-old father said his condition had steadily worsened.

Last year around Thanksgiving, he got a call that changed everything.

“My doctor called and said, ‘Hey, I need to see you. I just want to tell you that you’re in kidney failure right now,'” Key said.

In January, Key was hospitalized for nearly two weeks.

“It was really hard. I just wanted to be with my family,” he said.

He then spent a month learning how to use his dialysis machine so he could give himself dialysis treatments at home. His wife, Nelisa Key, said it took some getting used to.

“It’s a part-time job in itself, but in order to be here I have to do it,” said Kevin Key.

Nelisa Key said her daughter Stori does not want to leave her father’s side.

“After a few days of treatment, she probably just said, ‘Daddy, I can do this,'” Nelisa Key said.

The six-year-old accepted the new changes calmly and was ready to help as quickly as possible.

“He taught me at first, but then I got the hang of it,” Stori said, adding that she loves her dad “one hundred, 99, a thousand percent.”

Nelisa Key said it was bittersweet to watch Stori’s insistence on helping her father while he was sick.

“It’s heartbreaking to watch, but it’s also heartwarming for me to see how much she loves her dad, which I already knew was a lot,” she said. “But since he’s been sick, it’s really shown me how far she would go to be there for her dad.”

Nelisa Key said she began filming Stori’s assistance with Kevin’s dialysis treatments and posting the footage on social media to keep her out-of-town family updated.

She said she never expected the response they eventually received.

“I got a notification saying, ‘You’ve reached a million views,’ and I thought, ‘A million views?'” Nelisa Key said.

This now-viral Instagram video of Stori turning on Kevin’s dialysis machine and spinning in circles while he receives his treatment has been viewed more than 1.7 million times as of Thursday and received more than 40,000 likes and comments.

“There were so many prayer comments, and that’s her favorite part,” Nelisa Key said. “One day she noticed there were over 100 comments, and she thought, ‘Are that many people praying for Dad?’ And that warms her heart.”

The family’s greatest hope is that Kevin Key will receive a kidney transplant.

“I want someone to donate a kidney to my dad,” Stori said.

Kevin Key said his biggest concern was getting a new kidney so he could be sure he could provide for his family.

“I need a kidney transplant. That’s the ultimate end goal, you know,” he said. “Dialysis helps. I would say it’s a temporary solution. The long-term goal is to get a transplant, to find a donor.”

Kevin Key is currently on the waiting list for a kidney transplant at the UNOS Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital.

All he needs is a suitable donor.

If you are interested in making a donation, you can register here and specify Kevin Key as the desired recipient.

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