In the middle of the 9/11 attacks, when US airspace was shut down, one flight still got off the ground for a six-month-old baby who needed a liver transplant to survive.

That baby was Kareena. The healthcare worker who helped make it happen was Jill Grandas, now CEO of Tennessee Donor Services. Twenty-five years later, the two have met in person for the first time.

“Leading up to the meeting, I felt an intense mix of anticipation, gratitude and emotion,” Grandas, 62, told PEOPLE. “Working in organ donation, we are honored to save thousands of lives each year, and it is always profound to meet someone impacted by our work, including the families of our donor heroes, as well as the recipients of the organs we recover.”

Grandas said meeting Kareena “carried a unique weight, because her story is bound to a day of unimaginable national loss.”

“When people ask me where I was on 9/11, I can say that amidst our collective horror and grief, I helped save a life,” she added.

Kareena said, “It was so incredibly heartwarming to meet Jill in person.”

“She radiates such generosity and warmth that is so beautiful to be around, and it felt like we instantly fell into a natural conversation,” Kareena told PEOPLE. “We bonded over our giddiness in meeting in person, our mutual gratitude, and of course, the traffic we endured to reach each other on a Thursday afternoon.”

She added, “We also chatted about drinking black tea, and it turns out we both have a rather serious obsession.”

Kareena said she had been “really excited” to meet Grandas “so I could thank her in person after 25 years.”

“I felt so desperate to convey how grateful I am for her selflessness, her dedication and her kindness,” she said.

On September 11, 2001, the US Federal Aviation Administration stopped ordinary civilian and commercial flights, allowing only military, police, firefighting and medical transport flights.

Grandas recalled hearing on the radio that the first World Trade Center tower had been hit while taking her children to school.

“By the time I got to work, the second tower had been hit, and everyone was coming to realize that our country was in the middle of a terrorist attack,” she said. “The news came fast. They believed other planes could be hijacked and headed to Washington, D.C., and the FAA had called for an immediate ground stop. We were scared, confused and overcome with grief.”

She said staff could not stop working despite what was unfolding.

“Even a few minutes pause in the field of organ donation can mean that a life isn’t saved because human organs are so fragile and those waiting on transplants are so ill,” she said.

Grandas said she got a call from staff in the operating room at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville about Kareena, “who desperately needed a liver that day in order to survive.”

“At Vanderbilt, there was a donor whose liver was compatible, and we needed to fly that liver to Houston immediately to save the baby’s life,” she said.

“My first thought was what it always is: ‘Okay, let’s make this happen,’” Grandas said. “But in that same breath, reality set in. With all planes grounded, flying a liver to Houston was impossible.”

She said she then decided to try the FAA.

“I picked up the phone book, which at that time was still the best source for finding someone, and turned to the blue pages, which listed government offices. There in black and white was the number of the Air Traffic Control Tower at Nashville Airport,” Grandas said.

“I dialed the number, and someone answered. I could not believe it,” she said. “They transferred me to the tower’s supervisor immediately, and I explained that I was with Tennessee Donor Services and a baby was about to die in Houston if we couldn’t get a liver to her now.”

Grandas recalled the supervisor’s reply: “I understand your emergency.”

She later learned the woman “had experienced having a loved one of her own on the transplant list.”

A short time later, Grandas said, the organ was taken to a Nashville airport, where nine Tennessee National Guard members “flew on a C-130 plane with only one piece of cargo, a tiny donor liver.”

“It was my only joy in a day that devastated our world,” Grandas told PEOPLE. “Because of those dedicated teams at Vanderbilt and Tennessee Donor Services who did not stop their work, because of the bravery of the Tennessee National Guardsmen who risked their lives to take to the skies, Kareena’s life was saved that day in Houston.”

“The most astonishing part was, as much as I was determined to not take ‘no’ for an answer, no one actually ever told me ‘no,’” she added. “Not the staff at the hospital, not the FAA or the National Guard. No one said, ‘This is impossible.’ They found ways to make it possible.”

Kareena said the story has grown more meaningful with time.

“With every passing year, I feel the power of this story more keenly than before,” she said. “On such a dark day in our country, a group of strangers worked together to save a baby girl’s life.”

Kareena is now in law school and is considering a career in health policy.

“Growing up with a transplanted liver meant an early entry into the healthcare world,” she told PEOPLE. “I grew up taking my medicine every day, getting my labs done every few months and seeing my doctor every year to discuss my liver.”

“As I got older, I became more interested in the underlying factors affecting health, specifically the social determinants of health,” she said. “Over the next few years, I’m excited to learn more about the ways in which the law can be used to advance health equity.”

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