Texas Health
While most people were spending time with there loved ones over the recent holiday break, three North Texas teachers underwent three surgical procedures to donate their kidneys.
Talk about a Christmas miracle.
This kidney trifecta occurred over a three-day span that began on December 20th at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital here in Fort Worth.
Texas Health
From the left, Kathy Knowles and Louise Bailey.
The first teacher to go into surgery was Louise Bailey, a retired teacher now working as an art assistant at J.C. Thompson Elementary in the Northwest Independent School District. Her inspiration behind this decision goes back to her days in college.
After moving back to the North Texas area in 2020, Bailey reconnected with her former college roommate, Kathy Knowles, a retired Keller school principal, who was undergoing dialysis for stage 4 kidney disease.
“I was having to take a driver’s test and one of the questions was, ‘Would you consider being an organ donor?’” Bailey says. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why don’t I just do it now? I’m pretty healthy.’”
After her test, she immediately called Knowles and asked her, “Do you want a kidney?” To which Knowles asked, “Do you have a spare one somewhere?”
Bailey says she had no fear going into this surgery and no regrets for making this decision.
“I really felt God’s hands in all of this,” Bailey says in a release. “To see how much she has had to go through and hope this can make her quality of life better, it was definitely the right thing to do.”
And if you think this is brave, a day later, Ava Nickerson, a science teacher at Valley View High School, north of Denton, provided a kidney to a complete stranger.
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Ava Nickerson and her son Joel Nickerson.
Nickerson’s inspiration for doing this, obviously, wasn’t one of a personal nature. In fact, she may never know the name of the person who received her kidney. Instead, her inspiration for making this kind gesture stems back to her own son, who altruistically donated one of his kidneys to a stranger earlier in the year.
“I teach anatomy and am always amazed by how our body is created,” said Nickerson. “Even though I have two kidneys, I know that my body can function with one. A person whose kidneys are not functioning properly does not feel well, so my prayer is that the recipient will have a much better quality of life.”
Twenty-four hours after this surgery was complete, Highland Park Middle School special education teacher and coach, Mike Trevino donated a kidney to his former co-worker Mason Williams. These two met while both coaching at Polytechnic High School here in Fort Worth.
After parting ways, these two colleagues kept in touch over text messages, eventually meeting up to watch a Polytechnic scrimmage. This is when Trevino says he found out that Williams was born with only one kidney, which led to his then current medical issues.
“He told me that his one kidney had failed all the way down to about 10 percent,” Trevino says. Not being able to shake the thought of his former coworker’s health issue, Trevino began looking into ways to help him out. After running some tests, it was confirmed that they were a match.
“The way I looked at it, they have a daughter that is the same age as my granddaughter. I’ve had a great life and by no means do I think I’m anywhere near it being over, but he had too much going for him to be unhealthy, and to die soon would just be awful,” Trevino says.
Texas Health
Mike Trevino with Mason Williams who is in bed.
The scheduled date on Trevino’s calendar, which was the last of the three kidney donations, read, “Save Mason Day.”
As many may imagine, these six surgeries made for a busy week for Texas Health Fort Worth’s kidney transplant staff. However, there were no complaints.
“We knew it was important to them to get back to the classroom as soon as school started back, so we were excited to have the opportunity to accommodate this unique circumstance of three back-to-back surgeries the week before Christmas,” Robyn Dye, transplant administrator for the program says. “And best of all, it made for a very Merry Christmas for the kidney recipients.”
A press release sent out by Texas Health Fort Worth stated that the donors are back at work now and all doing well.
“Through their chosen profession, teachers give so much of themselves toward the betterment of others, so it should really come as no surprise that these three chose to donate their kidney to someone in need,” Joseph DeLeon, president of Texas Health Fort Worth says. “We are proud that Texas Health could play a role in helping to facilitate their selfless and lifesaving gift.”
