'Never doubted it': Teacher donates kidney to boy who attended her school
A teacher in Louisiana is donating a kidney to a 12-year-old boy who was not one of her students but attended the school before his kidneys failed.
Heather Mallet, a science teacher at F.K. White Middle School in Lake Charles, made the decision after hearing the news about the student, .
“Never doubted it, never blinked an eye, it’s just something I know I’m supposed to do,” Mallet said.
The student, Hayden Diaz, had to move away during the 2016-17 school year when his kidneys gave up on him and his family decided to be closer to relatives.
Hayden is now attached to a dialysis machine daily, the TV station reports.
“They’re functioning at less than 10 percent so every night for about 13 hours he’s hooked to the machine,” his mother Gloria Diaz said. “So the machine acts as a big kidney for him to take out all the toxins that he can’t get rid of on his own.”
Mallet said she wanted to help Hayden because of one of her friends with similar health issues died in 2016. Hayden enrolled at the middle school a few months after Mallet's friend died and she said it was a sign.
“I think about what I see kids every day able to do that he’s not able to do. We take those things for granted,” Mallet said.
The Diaz family said they are grateful for Mallet's decision.
“It feels amazing, it’s like a huge blessing. I’m ready and I know he is for the next step, and for him to be off of it and just be a kid again,” Diaz said.