Kim Jones received a kidney transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital – an operation that wouldn''t have happened without the help of employees at Southwest Airlines. Kim recently was reunited with four of those employees at Center for Advanced Medicine. Here is Kim''s story:

"Southwest passenger Kim Jones, please turn your call light on immediately."

Those words sent a shock through St. Louisan Kim Jones, 35, who was en route with her daughter to Little Rock, AR, to see her nephew who was on leave from duty in Iraq.

What happened next was a series of events that got Kim the lifesaving transplant operation she had waited for four long years.

The Southwest flight attendant told to stay seated after the plan landed – someone was trying to find her.

"I''m going to be arrested!" Kim thought. Because she is diabetic, she carries a kit with syringes, needles and medication. Kim and her kit were closely scrutinized going through security in St. Louis. Kim wondered if she had been mistaken for a terrorist.

But the flight attendant returned to tell Kim to turn on her cell phone. When she did, she found seven messages from Barnes-Jewish Hospital kidney transplant coordinator Lin Jones, telling her a possible donor kidney had been found.

Kim whooped, startling the flight attendants. When she told them the news, they, too started cheering.

Moments later on the ground in Little Rock, Lin Jones told Kim that she awaited the results of one more test to make sure the possible donor kidney was a match. But the return flight to St. Louis was scheduled to leave. The next flight back wasn''t until evening – too late to perform the transplant.

"I just got on my knees and started to pray," Kim said.

Southwest''s Little Rock operations supervisor Chris Swindell decided to hold the plane and two seats on it until Kim got word from St. Louis.

And Kim started having second thoughts, thinking maybe she shouldn''t Kim interrupt her trip to see her nephew who would only by in the US for 10 days.

"I almost had to talk her out of staying," Swindell said. "I told her you won''t be able to get out of here the next two days because all the flights were sold out. She had a hard decision to make because she really want to see her nephew."

Then, the call from Barnes-Jewish came – the kidney was a match. Kim needed to get back to the hospital as soon as possible.

Swindell escorted Kim and her daughter to the plane, where flight attendants Natalie Bermudez, Kristen Hutton and Kevin Giles waited for her.

When the other passengers were told why the flight was delayed, they cheered and cried, several telling Kim they''d pray for her. Bermudez, Hutton and Giles comforted Kim on the flight home, holding her hand, wiping her tears and calming her fears.When the plane landed in St. Louis, they led Kim and her daughter off the plane amid well wishes.

Kim went immediately to Barnes-Jewish, where transplant surgeon Niraj Desai implanted the donor kidney. The surgery went well, and Kim was discharged from the hospital July 30 with a functioning kidney.

On Aug. 11, after a follow-up appointment with Dr. Desai, Kim was met with Swindell, Bermudez, Hutton and Giles for the first time since her surgery. The Southwest employees surprised Kim with gifts, flowers and a pair of airline tickets to make up for her interrupted trip.

"They saved my life," Kim said in a radio interview. "I told them thank you and I love them."

Swindell said he and his fellow Southwest employees were just doing their job.

"We''re known for our legendary customer service and doing whatever it takes. We don''t really think about it being special, because we did this from our heart. It''s more special now how something like this turned out to be a miracle."