Vt. woman finds local kidney donor
WCAX
One Vermonter’s call for a kidney was answered by an unlikely donor. As many patients know, the wait for an organ can be long, and even deadly. But for Brandi Jagemann, good news came early.
When she learned that her kidney was failing last year, Brandi Jagemann knew she couldn’t wait around for a donor to come to her, but advertising for a kidney felt strange.
“It was actually my son who put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Mom, it’s not weird if you get a kidney.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, buddy, you’re right,’” said Jagemann.
Through five hours of daily dialysis, Jagemann doubled down on the hunt for a donor. She wrote messages on Facebook, taped posters around Montpelier, and even held up a sign at a Patriots game. “It was amazing how many people were calling Dartmouth and emailing Dartmouth and going on and doing the surveys,” she said.
Seventy-one-year-old Theresa Lever was one of those people. She knew Jagemann from their shared work at Central Vermont Medical Center. Lever had seen Jagemann’s messages for months, assuming someone would step up to the plate. Then, while walking in downtown Montpelier this spring, she saw yet another poster asking for help and wondered if she could be the answer.