Teachers are supposed to be kind, caring and generous but one American woman has gone above and beyond the call of duty.
Lindsay Painter is an elementary school teacher in Texas with a very special student – six-year-old Matthew Parker.
Parker is a triplet who, at just three weeks old, began to experience kidney failure and since then has been waiting to find someone who can offer him a viable organ so he can live.
After his body rejected one earlier transplant Matthew was only given a one per cent chance of finding a match. But when the doctors at the University Transplant Center in San Antonio held a press conference, publicly pleading for donors, more than 70 people stepped forward to be tested, including Painter, who proved to be a perfect match.
“When it came back that I was a match, it was shocking,” Painter told local news station, KVUE. “It did take a while to wrap my head around it, to think that I can do this, I can still live a normal life…and I get to make this amazing difference in Matthew’s life.”
Doctors plan to remove one of Painter’s kidneys through a minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery in mid-March and transplant the organ to Matthew.
It is hoped that after the surgery Matthew – who only attends school two days a week and spends the other three days in San Antonio receiving dialysis treatment – will make a full recovery and be able to lead a normal life.
