Keith Kennedy

Keith Kennedy

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#GoodNews: Ohio Teacher To Be Living Organ Donor For Former Student

A teacher in Ohio volunteers to be a living organ donor for her former 4th grade student. Theresa Novak has been a teacher for nearly 30 years and is dedicated to her students. But now she’s taking her dedication to new heights by volunteering to donate part of her liver to save the life of a former student.

One of Novak’s first students, when she was a 4th grade teacher back in 1997, was Derek Norton. She currently works with Derek’s sister at Woodridge High School in Peninsula, Ohio, and learned that Norton, who is married and has a young son, was suffering from a rare autoimmune condition and was desperately in need of a life-saving liver transplant. “Derek is one of my kids, so I kind of read up on what exactly does he need. What is a living donor?,” Novak recalls. “When I read it, I thought, ‘I can do that.’”

So Novak quietly got tested and when she learned she was a match, she volunteered to be his living donor. Their surgery is scheduled for this week. She says the family is grateful, but she’s just doing what she believes is right and what she hopes someone would do for her if she was in the same position. “You can never predict something like this,” she says. “But he’s one of my kids and he needed me.”

Source: WDTN


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