{"id":13026,"date":"2024-03-15T12:35:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T12:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=13026"},"modified":"2024-03-15T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:24:09","slug":"a-life-saving-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2024\/03\/15\/a-life-saving-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"A life-saving gift"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"French
French instructor Sharon Gerlach<\/strong> and Aaliyah Abdi \u201923<\/strong> (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the winter of her junior year at Augsburg University, Aaliyah Abdi \u201923<\/strong> received shocking and unimaginable news.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her body was starting to reject a kidney transplant from when she was 14 years old.<\/p>\n

There hadn\u2019t been any problems in the seven years since Abdi had received the kidney, donated by her mother. But suddenly, Abdi\u2019s doctor was telling her that she\u2019d have to either go on dialysis\u2014an ongoing medical treatment to clean a person\u2019s blood amid kidney failure\u2014or get another kidney transplant soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a sporadic rejection,\u201d Abdi said. Her first kidney transplant was needed because of an autoimmune disease. But this time, \u201cthere wasn\u2019t any underlying issue with my health that would have warranted the rejection of my kidney. It just happened. The doctor said that\u2019s just what happens to some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi hoped to find a kidney donor quickly. Doing so would mean she could skip the exhausting and time-consuming dialysis treatment. However, she didn\u2019t have any immediate options. Abdi\u2019s mother had already donated for her first kidney transplant\u2014she couldn\u2019t donate again. And the rest of Abdi\u2019s family members and close friends were unable to donate for other reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cA handful of people were willing to,\u201d she said. But when these prospective kidney donors did a Mayo Clinic online assessment to see if they were eligible, each one was rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh wow, that kind of sucks. But it is what it is,\u2019\u201d Abdi said.<\/p>\n

With her family and friends unable to donate, Abdi was unsure of who to ask next.<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t know at the time was that one of her teachers at Augsburg also had kidney donation on her mind. For years, French instructor Sharon Gerlach<\/strong> had felt called to donate a kidney, but she didn\u2019t know anybody who needed one. Although Abdi was in her second semester of Gerlach\u2019s class, she had not shared her health struggles with her teacher. Neither of them knew what the other was thinking.<\/p>\n

\"Gerlach
Gerlach in her office (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It was on my heart\u2019<\/h2>\n

Gerlach had thought about kidney donation since 2009, when she read a newspaper article about the need for these life-saving procedures. \u201cIt just kind of struck me as something I\u2019d like to do someday, if I knew somebody and if I was a match,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then, Gerlach\u2019s mother was diagnosed with kidney disease. \u201cI thought, \u2018Well, if my mom needed a kidney someday, I\u2019m totally on board with that.\u2019 But her kidney disease was not progressive, so she never had a need for dialysis, and she never needed a kidney donor at any time,\u201d Gerlach said.<\/p>\n

Still, reflecting on her mother\u2019s diagnosis got Gerlach thinking more and more about kidney donation. She contemplated it for years, saving articles on the topic whenever she\u2019d come across them. In 2021, Gerlach even considered donating a kidney anonymously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still really on my radar and on my heart,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just thinking, \u2018I\u2019m healthy now, so now might be a good time to donate a kidney.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked her husband about whether she should donate anonymously, but he was concerned the procedure might affect her ability to care for their youngest son. He suggested she hold off for a few years, and since she didn\u2019t personally know anyone who needed a kidney donor, Gerlach set the idea aside for a while.<\/p>\n

Being a student on dialysis<\/h2>\n

In March 2022, a few months after Abdi\u2019s body began to reject her kidney, her health got worse, and she could no longer put off dialysis treatment. She began to go to a dialysis facility three times a week, for three to four hours at a time. After each appointment, she\u2019d feel completely drained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cDialysis is so taxing on your body. Even though you\u2019re sitting in a chair for three or four hours, it feels like you ran a mile. You\u2019re out of breath; you\u2019re so exhausted because your blood is being pulled out and drained and cleaned.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a psychology major approaching her senior year, Abdi worked hard to keep up with her schoolwork amid dealing with her health issues. She scheduled classes around her dialysis appointments, and she worked to finish her homework during the first hours of dialysis, before she became too tired to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of time management,\u201d she said. \u201cOh my gosh, it was so much time management.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhaustion also affected Abdi\u2019s life outside of class. \u201cI felt like I missed out on a lot of things like just going out to a movie at night or going out to dinner because I would be so tired,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the most part, Abdi kept her struggles to herself. Most people at school didn\u2019t know she was on dialysis, she said. If she had to miss class because of an appointment, she\u2019d usually just tell the professor she had \u201ca medical issue\u201d without getting into details.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would almost try to create two different versions of myself. There was my \u2018dialysis and sick me,\u2019 which a lot of my family and closest friends were involved with. But my \u2018school self\u2019 was completely normal,\u201d Abdi said.<\/p>\n

Then, one day in late April, she was so drained from dialysis that she wasn\u2019t going to make it to French class. She emailed Gerlach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told her flat out, because I was tired of holding it. I was kind of at my last point,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cI told her, \u2018I\u2019m not coming to class because I\u2019m exhausted from dialysis\u2019\u2014and that\u2019s what kind of sparked the whole conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gerlach
Gerlach teaches her language class in Old Main. (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making the connection<\/h2>\n

The weekend before she received Abdi\u2019s email, Gerlach had decided to pray about kidney donation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really felt like I should donate a kidney soon because I knew I was in good health and I\u2019ve got the support network, and you never know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cI remember, I just decided to pray about it. I\u2019m a person of faith, and I kind of thought, \u2018God, if you\u2019re going to place this on my heart, open that door for me, or just make it clear if this is something I should pursue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gerlach got to campus on Monday, she saw Abdi\u2019s email about dialysis. \u201cI thought, \u2018Dialysis? I know what that means,\u2019\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cAnd I\u2019d had no clue. Aaliyah had never given any indication that she had any serious health problems or any kidney issues at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerlach responded with sympathy for what Abdi was going through and asked if this meant she needed a kidney donor. Gerlach wasn\u2019t offering, but she wanted to know more about Abdi\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw her ask that,\u201d Abdi said, \u201cI was like, \u2018Stop! Do you know somebody?\u2019 It was such a weird email thread because I just kind of woke up. I was like, \u2018No, she can\u2019t be talking like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The email connection moved Gerlach, too. \u201cIt really hit me,\u201d she said. \u201cI honestly wanted to say \u2018yes\u2019 right away, but I had to check with my family first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerlach took time to research the process of kidney donation and to discuss the implications with her husband.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Abdi had her final exam for Gerlach\u2019s class. As Abdi was leaving the classroom, Gerlach stopped her to say she\u2019d been thinking about her ever since their email exchange.<\/p>\n

Gerlach recalled, \u201cShe kind of looked at me and asked, \u2018Have you thought about it? Would you be willing to donate?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gerlach was still in the process of discussing it with her family. \u201cThat was really hard to have her ask me directly and not be able to say \u2018yes\u2019 right away because I really wanted to,\u201d Gerlach said.<\/p>\n

After that conversation, Abdi assumed Gerlach would not donate her kidney. She was disappointed, but she understood. \u201cI was like, \u2018Okay, no worries,\u2019\u201d Abdi said, \u201cand I left that school year, my junior year, thinking, \u2018It\u2019s okay. I\u2019m just going to have to keep doing dialysis.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying \u2018yes\u2019<\/h2>\n

Several weeks later, while Abdi was on campus doing research with the McNair Scholars Program, she got an email from Gerlach.<\/p>\n

It said Gerlach wanted to donate her kidney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my god, no way,\u2019\u201d Abdi said. She didn\u2019t want to get her hopes up because her other potential donors had turned out to be ineligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then,\u201d Abdi said, \u201cI hopped on a Zoom call with Sharon. She was telling me the story of how she understood and how kidney disease had affected her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi could barely believe what she was hearing. \u201cIt felt like she needed to do it. And I was like, \u2018You\u2019re joking with me right now. You\u2019re joking!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

During that Zoom call, Gerlach and Abdi shared their blood types and discovered they wouldn\u2019t be a match for a direct donation, Gerlach said.<\/p>\n

However, they decided to proceed because, if eligible, Gerlach could donate on Abdi\u2019s behalf, putting Abdi in line to receive a kidney from another living donor via exchange through the National Kidney Registry<\/a>. The benefit of connecting with a living donor, according to Mayo Clinic<\/a>, is that the recipient can have their transplant sooner than if they were on a waitlist for a kidney from a deceased donor.<\/p>\n

Abdi sent Gerlach the link to the Mayo Clinic online questionnaire to see if she was eligible\u2014and Gerlach passed. Then, Gerlach had to participate in a couple of phone interviews followed by two days of in-person testing at the clinic in Rochester to confirm her eligibility to donate.<\/p>\n

On June 29, Gerlach was officially approved to donate her kidney on Abdi\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

When Abdi heard this news, the donation finally felt real. \u201cWhen Sharon told me again\u2014after she did all the Mayo Clinic things\u2014that she was accepted, I cried,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cI think I was walking somewhere when I got the email, and I just stopped. I sat down, and I cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi\u2019s family and friends were relieved and overjoyed, too. \u201cThey saw me struggle for a long time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so happy and thankful,\u201d Abdi continued. \u201cHow could I not be thankful? It\u2019s somebody who\u2019s not related to me, who had just met me over the course of a year and, out of the kindness of her heart, was able to do something so selfless and give me another chance of just living a normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The donation process<\/h2>\n

Gerlach\u2019s kidney would be given to someone on the National Kidney Registry waitlist, and, in exchange for this donation, Abdi would be placed on the waitlist to be matched with a living kidney donor.<\/p>\n

Gerlach\u2019s donation surgery was scheduled for August 11 at Mayo Clinic. She wanted to be able to recover in time to teach the Fall 2022 semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured that would give me at least three weeks to recover before classes started. That was kind of my criteria,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The surgery went smoothly. When Gerlach woke up in her hospital room, she had an email from the son of the person who received her kidney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re donating like that, you may not ever know who you donated to because they keep each person\u2019s confidentiality,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cI had signed a release saying it\u2019s fine to share my contact information with my recipient, and I didn\u2019t necessarily expect to hear back from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the email meant a lot to her. \u201cIt said, \u2018Thank you for saving my father\u2019s life,\u2019\u201d Gerlach said.<\/p>\n

Gerlach stayed in Rochester for a few nights after her surgery, then continued her recovery at home. The process went quicker than she expected. \u201cI felt up to driving after 10 days, and the first place I came to, actually, was a faculty workshop at Augsburg,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo weeks to the day after my surgery, I was feeling so good I decided to go to the State Fair,\u201d she added. \u201cI did get tired more quickly and had to sit down to take a little nap, but I had a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Gerlach fully recovered without any problems. \u201cSome people wonder, are there lasting effects of donating a kidney? For me, none at all,\u201d she said. \u201cThey did all kinds of follow-up tests on me. You can live perfectly healthy with good kidney function with one kidney.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long wait<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, Gerlach stayed in touch with Abdi, who was waiting for a donor match from the kidney exchange.<\/p>\n

The wait was longer than anticipated. Abdi had tried to work with her medical team to get a kidney transplant around the same time as Gerlach\u2019s donation surgery, but another unrelated health problem came up. Abdi had to be pulled off the kidney waitlist until she was healthy enough for surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis other health issue affected my eye,\u201d Abdi said, \u201cand it just kind of happened randomly. So, my kidney team was like, \u2018We\u2019re going to pump the brakes on you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2022, her doctor gave her the green light for transplant surgery and she got back on the waitlist. But it would still be months before she\u2019d get matched with a donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had waited for so long already,\u201d Abdi recalled. \u201cI was trying to get that kidney so that I could finish off the rest of my senior year feeling OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2023, she finally got the call. She\u2019d been matched with a donor. Her transplant was scheduled for April 19 at Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n

Abdi would have to stay in Rochester for two to three weeks after surgery for recovery and follow-up tests. Determined to graduate on time, she emailed her professors so they could help her plan to finish her schoolwork before the surgery or remotely.<\/p>\n

In those emails, Abdi finally told her professors that she\u2019d be having a kidney transplant. They offered a lot of support, she said. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Congratulations! We didn\u2019t even know you were dealing with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 19, Abdi headed to Mayo Clinic for her surgery\u2014but she was feeling sick.<\/p>\n

After preoperative testing, Abdi\u2019s doctor told her she had a high fever and could not go through with the transplant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fighting,\u201d Abdi said, \u201cand I was so sad that day when they said I couldn\u2019t get the kidney.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Such a sweet gift\u2019<\/h2>\n
\"Abdi
Abdi (right) and Gerlach (left) outside US Bank Stadium for Augsburg’s commencement ceremony, 2023 (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Abdi got back to Minneapolis, she felt deeply disappointed. \u201cIt was like the wind was kicked out of me,\u201d she said. She\u2019d have to wait to get matched with another donor, and she didn\u2019t know how long that would take.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so sad,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cI had already said goodbye to all my friends and family and my teachers. So, when I came back, everyone was super sad. But I was like, \u2018It is what it is. I\u2019ll get a call eventually, when it\u2019s my time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With most of her schoolwork done, Abdi mostly just rested and spent time with her family until she could graduate. She also continued dialysis.<\/p>\n

On May 3, Abdi proudly walked in Augsburg\u2019s commencement ceremony with her family and Gerlach supporting her.<\/p>\n

Then, the next day, Abdi got a call from her medical team. They told her she\u2019d been matched with another donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got me a kidney. It was such a sweet gift,\u201d she said. \u201cYes, I graduated on dialysis and with all my health issues, but to be done with it during the same year was such a gift for me. I was so thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi\u2019s transplant surgery was scheduled for May 30, and in the week leading up to it, she essentially quarantined herself. She didn\u2019t want to get sick again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Nobody come see me, and I\u2019m not going out. I\u2019m not trying to get sick this time.\u2019 I was not playing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On May 30, Abdi returned to Mayo Clinic and her surgery went well. She recalled, \u201cI woke up and asked, \u2018They gave me the kidney, right?\u2019 and the nurse told me, \u2018Yeah, you got a kidney. You\u2019re all good; you\u2019re all fine.\u2019 And then I just started crying. I was so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi\u2019s recovery went smoothly, and she stayed in touch with Gerlach throughout the process.<\/p>\n

She also contacted her donor to express her gratitude. \u201cI loved having my Zoom conversation with him,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cMuch like Sharon, he felt like it was something he needed to do. He was not donating on anybody\u2019s behalf. He just did it. \u2026 Nobody technically had any ties where they had to do it for somebody else. They just did it, and then I ended up with a new kidney. That\u2019s just very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Abdi
Abdi walks across the stage at Augsburg’s commencement ceremony, 2023. (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moving forward<\/h2>\n

To Gerlach, the donation experience felt impactful for several reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of anyone I would rather donate my kidney for than Aaliyah. She\u2019s got so much potential and so much life ahead of her. I was just really, really glad that I could help someone like her,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cAnd the other part of the story is knowing that I helped two people kind of get their normal lives back, because we did the exchange. That was really meaningful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerlach encourages anyone interested in donating a kidney to seriously look into it. \u201cIf someone feels like they might be willing to do it, I would say definitely consider it. Definitely be open to it if you\u2019re in good health and if you have the support. It\u2019s something you can do to save somebody\u2019s life, and there\u2019s so many people on the waitlist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody\u2019s called to do everything,\u201d Gerlach said, \u201cbut I\u2019ve been blessed with really good health, and so this is something that I could do. It\u2019s not often that you can do something that will save someone\u2019s life. That\u2019s pretty rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi has been in good health since the transplant. She said she\u2019s working at two mental health clinics in the Twin Cities and has just been enjoying life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kidney is working great,\u201d she said. \u201cMy energy levels have increased, my appetite has increased, and I feel like my outlook has changed, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdi added that she hopes students who hear her story will be inspired to be more open about their own struggles. She made the personal decision to keep her health issues to herself for a long time, she said, \u201cbut everybody at school was really sweet and supportive of me once I was able to tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be very difficult to share the things that are affecting you with other people aside from your immediate family and friends,\u201d Abdi said. \u201cBut the more I spoke about it, I realized, the better I felt. Just be more open to any relationship you have and to your own personal story. Because if you need something, the person that might be able to give it to you might just be teaching you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Top image: French instructor Sharon Gerlach<\/strong>\u00a0and Aaliyah Abdi \u201923<\/strong>\u00a0in the quad on Augsburg’s campus (Courtesy photo)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the winter of her junior year at Augsburg University, Aaliyah Abdi \u201923 received shocking and unimaginable news. Her body was starting to reject a kidney transplant from when she was 14 years old. There hadn\u2019t been any problems in the seven years since Abdi had received the kidney, donated by her mother. But suddenly, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":13059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[237],"class_list":["post-13026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-spring-2024"],"wps_subtitle":"How an Augsburg instructor donated a kidney for a student","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13026"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13112,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026\/revisions\/13112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}