Kidney-twins: Teacher donates kidney to student
MILWAUKEE and OAKFIELD - Laughter drifted through a curtain as a nurse prepared Jodi Schmidt for surgery.
She'd been waiting for this day for months. The third-grade teacher donated a kidney to an 8-year-old student who attends the school in Oakfield where she teaches.
The laughter reflected the mood of Jodi and her husband, Rich, as they prepared to help change the girl's life.
"I'm very excited and I'm more than ready to start the next part of our journey," Schmidt said while sitting up in a hospital bed about an hour before the operation. "To change her. In the big picture, that's what I've been called to do."
Natasha Fuller was born with prune belly syndrome, a rare condition where abdominal muscles do not fully form. One of the most serious complications is renal failure. For the past couple of years, she has lived with her grandmother in Oakfield to be near specialized care at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, including kidney dialysis three-times-a-week.
Her parents and siblings live in Oklahoma and have made the trip to Wisconsin several times in the last two months to support fundraising efforts and to help Natasha through surgery.
The community has rallied around the girl as the story of the teacher donating a kidney to a student brought international attention to Oakfield, a village of 1,075 about nine miles southwest of Fond du Lac. Employees at the school district donated sick days to cover Schmidt's time off. A fund was set up under the name of Jodi and Natasha at Bank of Oakfield.
Schmidt, a mother of 3, speaks of her decision to donate in terms of fate and destiny. The pair were reunited Friday for their first visit since the successful donation and transplant on Tuesday as Schmidt was discharged from the hospital.
"I can't wait to watch her get married, go to prom and all that kind of stuff," Schmidt said. "We'll be kidney twins forever."
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