A 'No-Brainer': Teacher Refuses Hero Tag after Donating Kidney to Her Student in Detroit
In a lifesaving act, a teacher from Detroit gave one of her kidneys to one of her students, saying it was a "no-brainer" and that she should not be regarded a hero for what she has done.
Nadirah Muhammad, a 39-year-old physical education and health teacher at Detroit's West Side Academy, donated her kidney last December to 18-year-old A'Ja Booth, who had been suffering from a debilitating kidney disease.
Last Tuesday, May 19, the two received a warm welcome from the staff, faculty and students of West Side Academy as a fully healed Booth returned for her first full day back at school.
Booth and her lifesaving teacher Muhammad walked arm-in-arm on a red carpet in the gymnasium decorated with welcoming signs and balloons as jubilant students threw confetti.
"I'm blessed and I'm thankful," Booth said, holding back tears in front of her classmates and teachers.
Before her kidney transplant, Booth left school early three days a week for four years so she could undergo grueling dialysis treatments. She had a kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. It is "a disease in which scar tissue develops on the parts of the kidneys that filter waste out of the blood," according to Mayo Clinic.
For four years, Booth left school three days a week for dialysis treatment, according to a report by the Detroit Free Press.
In May last year, Muhammad overheard Booth talking to another teacher about her illness.
"After I read her story, I immediately decided that I wanted to volunteer to donate one of my kidneys," she told the Detroit Free Press. "If that was my child, I would want someone to do the same. It was a no-brainer."
Booth and Muhammad were declared by doctors as a perfect match after months of tests.
Muhammad's kidney was removed last Dec.15 at the Henry Ford Hospital and it was taken immediately to the operating room at Children's Hospital of Michigan where Booth was waiting.
Dr. Jason Denny, who performed the transplant, said "I've had a lot of combinations, but I don't know about student-teacher. We've had ex-wives, and bosses and their employees."
The transplant was a success and Muhammad returned to teach last January.
Dr. Denny said the teacher's donation "shows that we can redefine what a hero is."
The Gift of Life Michigan said as of May 1, there were 3,505 patients in Michigan waiting for organ donations, of which 2,803 were kidney patients. Of the total, 41 percent were African-American, the Detroit Free Press said.
"The original miracle of life is God's gift. We agree with that. But right where you are, you can also give the gift of life. Ms. Muhammad did that for A'Ja," Denny said.