Teacher Donating Kidney: First-Grade Student To Receive Kidney From His Own Teacher

A teacher donating a kidney to one of her students is shocking everyone in Bexar County, Texas, because of the odds. Six-year-old Matthew Parker is in need of a kidney transplant, and his family looked all over the country for a compatible donor. Up to 80 people signed up to donate a living organ for the first-grader. Coincidentally, the donor chosen to donate a kidney to Matthew was his teacher, Lindsey Painter, according to the University Transplant Center in Bexar County.

NBC News reports that when volunteers were asked to be tested, Painter was the “first one to sign up.” The first-grade teacher at Hoffman Lane was astounded when she got a call back saying she was a “preliminary match.”

Before the teacher learned she was donating a kidney to Matthew, she had to get several more tests done. She passed all of them and will be the 6-year-old’s kidney donor.

“It is completely mind-blowing The coordinator of the hospital called me Christmas Eve to tell me I was a match,” Painter said, according to Fox 2 News.

Lisa Parker, Matthew’s mother, said the nurse warned the family to be “realistic.” She said that “the term, ‘needle in a haystack,’ was used several times.”

Matthew was so excited to learn that his teacher would be donating a kidney to him that he hugged her.

“When I found out Mrs. Painter was a match I went up and gave her a big hug.”

Painter didn’t make the decision lightly. Matthew’s kidneys are failing, and she empathizes with anyone going through this. It’s especially hard for her to imagine the condition affecting one of her two sons.

“I have a ten-year-old and six-year-old at home, little boy And I just can’t imagine having a child who is going through what Matt has gone through.”

Mrs. Parker says her son’s donor is a “selfless” and “giving person” for doing this.

The surgeries for the kidney donation will take place in March.

In another story on the Inquisitr about a teacher donating a kidney, last spring a kindergarten teacher donated one of her organs to an 8-year-old girl she taught the year prior. Nicole Miller received her kidney from Wendy Killian. When all 18 donors tested weren’t a suitable match for Nicole, Mrs. Killian volunteered to get tested and was a good match for the girl.

This is the type of bond between a student and teacher that goes far beyond the classroom.

[Photo Credit: Lexington Clinic]