Patrick Mertens is a 64-year-old custodian at a small-town school in Minnesota and was in dire need of a kidney transplant. The staff at the Kimball Elementary School he worked at had held numerous fundraisers to help fund his treatments, but his kidney continued to fail.
His daughter posted a plea on her Facebook page asking for any potential donors to come forward as a last ditch effort to safe her fathers life.
That’s when Erin Durga, a 3rd-grade teacher at the school heard her calling and knew what she had to do.
After tests determined she was a match, she didn’t call him and tell him, but rather showed up to his house one evening, unexpected, wearing a t-shirt that just said “DONOR” across the front.
The operation happened this past Summer and both Patrick and Erin recovered perfectly.
“She’s our miracle, our angel,” Patrick’s wife Lynda Mertens said about Erin. “We’ll forever be grateful for her.”
This is Erin Durga. She's an elementary school teacher.
— Goodable (@Goodable) December 3, 2020
When Erin learned that her school's custodian, Patrick, was so sick that he needed a new kidney, she knew what to do.
She donated her own.
Teachers are awesome ♥️💯 pic.twitter.com/iewjDJv152
Comments