When kindergarten teacher Nancy Bleuer from Iowa noticed that one of her pupils was really sad, she decided to try and comfort him and asked what was going on.
She had already seen that Camden hasn’t been his usual, happy self for quite some time. The 54-year-old teacher wanted to know if she could help.
Nancy was absolutely heartbroken after the four-year-old boy told her that his father was extremely ill.
Camden said to his caring teacher that his dad, Darreld Petersen, was really sick as his kidneys were completely malfunctioning. According to doctors, Darreld’s kidneys were only operating at around twenty percent of normal capacity.
Because the man’s kidneys aren’t able to handle their duties, the man had been getting dialysis treatments for a couple of months.
However, the treatments made Darreld severely sick. It was clear that the man was in need of a new kidney before things got even worse.
As you’d expect, Camden was extremely worried that his dad wouldn’t get better.
“It wasn’t until I ended up going to the ER and my doctor, the next day during a follow up .. she noticed that my hemoglobin count was extremely low,” Darreld said to ABC. “They did a biopsy that showed 20 percent [kidney] function.”
Nancy was absolutely devastated upon hearing the news, and decided that she would do everything she possibly could to help out Camden and his family.
Camden’s teacher didn’t want to just help out his dad, she wanted to save his life and offered something that Darren couldn’t possibly dream of.
Nancy offered to donate one of her own kidneys.
After hearing the news, the woman immediately got tested. As fate would have it, her kidneys were a perfect match!
Without hesitation, Nancy filled in all the necessary paperwork to prepare for the procedure.
“I was really excited about it,” the teacher recalls. “I was ecstatic. I don’t know what I would’ve done for closure if I wasn’t [a match].”
Nancy was thrilled to share the good news with Camden and Darreld! She mentioned to ABC that the man was enormously grateful for what she was about to do.
“It’s just amazing,” Darreld mentioned to ABC News. “There are people waiting every day for a kidney, for an organ in general. I wish there were more people like her. She’s giving me a second chance at life.”
“She’s an amazing lady and from day one she was gungho. Camden gets the idea that Ms. Nancy is helping his dad,” the man added in an interview with Inside Edition.
The two recall that sharing the news about the kidney donation was an emotional moment for the three of them.
“Here was Darreld and his son with a dozen huge roses and I’m crying but of course, it was very nice,” she added. “The day he found out, I said, ‘We’re on, it’s a go.’ Then, he came over and hugged me and he said, ‘Oh my gosh.’
It was a very cool response and it’s good to know that I’ll be able to go to Camden’s high school graduation one day and talk about this and think, ‘Well, that was crazy.'”
The surgery took place a couple of weeks later at the University of Iowa Hospital and both are now doing well.
Such a heartwarming and selfless act!
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