Teacher saves life of pupil with kidney donation

Lyla Carreyn with her teacher and kidney donor Beth Battista. Photo / Twitter @uwhealthkids

A US teacher has saved a 5-year-old pupil's life bygiving the child a kidney, the BBC reports.

Beth Battista told the BBC she offered her kidney after hearing of Lyla Carreyn's difficulty in finding a suitable donor.

"I knew I just had to get tested rather than watch her suffer," she said.

Both Battista and Lyla are recovering after the transplant operation last Thursday.

The teacher, who is also a mother-of-two, said that she heard about Lyla's condition after her mother Dena Carreyn shared a Facebook post about the girl's need for a kidney donor.

The BBC said Lyla was diagnosed a year ago with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), a rare autoimmune disorder which requires 12 hours of dialysis a day.

Battista contacted the Living Donor programme in Wisconsin and, after two tests in July and August, was deemed to be a suitable donor for Lyla.

The BBC said it was a rare match because she needed to be the right blood group with few antibodies from previous bouts of sickness. She also needed to have matching antigens.

In September she discovered that the child was to be a pupil in her class at the Kids' Express Learning Centre in Madison.

Beth Battista gave 5-year-old Lyla the gift of life & urges everyone to 'go in and get tested' to be an organ donor. https://t.co/wyLWaQAFFp pic.twitter.com/gnRCF6yfHR

— American Family Children's Hospital (@uwhealthkids) February 24, 2017