Teacher and Mom of Two Donates Kidney to Teen
North Carolina teacher JoAnn Schettig is giving her coworker’s ailing daughter a kidney — and, the mother tells Yahoo Parenting, “the gift of a second chance.” (Photo: Facebook/A Kidney For Alex)
Just by virtue of being an elementary school teacher, JoAnn Schettig gives kids so much: education, attention, encouragement, and support. But for one special 16-year-old, the New Hanover County, North Carolina educator is going above and beyond. Next month, Schettig (currently working as a teacher’s assistant) is giving teen Alex Brigantti a kidney — and hope for the future.
“She is giving my Alex the gift of a second chance,” Brigantti’s mom Aidimar Richardson, who is the data manager at the same school, tells Yahoo Parenting about her coworker, who only learned about Brigantti’s search for a kidney donor by overhearing Richardson talk about it. “Our family can’t even begin to describe how grateful we are to Joann.”
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(Photo: Facebook/A Kidney For Alex)
The teen was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in August 2014, and today her kidneys are reportedly functioning at just 13 percent. “I just said I would do it, mainly because if it were my children, I hope someone would help us,” Schettig told WECT. “You want to leave the world a little better than you found it, and it’s everybody’s job to help.”
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But not everybody can. The chances of Brigantti and Schettig being a perfect match were just 1 in 100,000, according to WECT. Richardson calls the serendipity that they are a match “living proof that there are angels among us.”
Talking with other transplant patients, Richardson says she learned that many had been on a waiting list for more than four years. “One told me they tested four different donors for her, and something always went wrong until they found the right one,” she says. “It takes several months of testing, and while that is going one with one donor, they do not start on another one, so it can become a very long process.”
The mother wanted to be her daughter’s donor but says she was turned down because she’d had kidney stones in the past, making her a poor candidate. To find a fit, then, in someone so close to her mom makes Schettig’s gesture even more meaningful.
“Alex is very grateful,” says Richardson, admitting that “in the beginning she was wondering why someone [who] didn’t know her was going to help her.” But since then, the two have spent time together and have made a special connection. Now Richardson says, “Its beautiful to watch them together because you know they will be sharing a special bond.”
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