Nursing school presents plenty of challenges for students, but an Alabama senior has taken her commitment beyond books.
Jenna Mize graduates from Calhoun Community College's nursing school next month, and in June she will be donating her left kidney to a friend who was diagnosed with organ failure last year, WHNT reported.
Mize, 21, will fly to Tampa, Florida, where she will donate her kidney June 20 to her lifelong friend, 19-year-old Deanna Recktenwald, who has stage 5 kidney failure.
When Recktenwald’s family posted on social media in December seeking a donor, Mize said she did not give it much thought.
"I'm in nursing school, I'm about to graduate, I'm about to get a job, like this just isn't the timing," Mize told WHNT.
However, she began having second thoughts after praying for her friend.
"Almost instantly, I just felt this voice, 'You need to fill out the application,’” Mize told the television station. “I just knew right then, before I even filled it out, that I was going to be her match."
After her initial application was approved, Mize went to Florida for more testing, WHNT reported. After getting a telephone call from doctors saying she was a match, Mize used FaceTime Recktenwald to give Recktenwald the news, holding up a sign that read, "I love you with all my left kidney."
"I just know 100% that this is what I'm supposed to be doing," Mize told WHNT. "What I've just learned constantly throughout this whole process is that it's God's timing and this is what he wanted and more than anything, it's bringing her life back."
Mize's medical bills will be covered by insurance, but her travel expenses will not be. Her family started a GoFundMe page, and after 10 days she is nearly halfway to her goal of $5,000. The family said if the account exceeds the goal, the surplus will be donated to help cover Recktenwald's medical bills, the television station reported.
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