Teacher donates kidney to stranger to help former student in need of transplant

PENDERLEA, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) -When Laura Eakins first met Kaleek Beatty in 2016, he was waiting on a kidney.

Eakins, a teacher at Pender High School in North Carolina, and Beatty, a student there at the time, developed a bond almost immediately.

“I was coaching Kaleek’s brother, so I knew the family and their struggles,” the physical education teacher said.

Beatty was in need of a kidney and was able to get a transplant eight years ago, but he recently found out that the organ has run its course.

“In the fall, he got some bad news and he was like, ‘I’m going to be on the transplant list again.’ And I just felt a call,” Eakins said.

Eakins, the wife of a pastor, says her faith told her she would be OK.

“I have a very healthy life and I’m blessed beyond measure,” Eakins described.

But her former student would not be OK without another kidney transplant.

Beatty was born with a chronic kidney disease.

“I was born with hydronephrosis. So basically, that is when the urine from the kidney, from the bladder, goes into the kidneys, filters and goes right back into the kidneys,” Beatty said.

His now 8-year-old kidney is no longer doing what it needs to.

A kidney transplant can last anywhere from 8 to 25 years, depending on whether it’s a living or deceased donor.

Kidneys donated by living donors last longer.

Eakins was willing to give Beatty one of hers, but they weren’t a match.

“We went through the process. I was approved as a donor, but I wasn’t approved for him,’ Eakins remarked.

Thanks to a voucher program started at UCLA in 2014, Eakins would be able to donate a kidney to a complete stranger in exchange for moving Beatty up on the national registry.

The Beatty family was ecstatic, but Eakins’ husband was not.

“Now, to be fair, the fleshly side of me because that was my wife (said), ‘We need to talk about this more. We need to talk about this more,’” Eakins’s spouse said. “But in the end, through our conversation, she said it was just as clear as if you spoke to me and I said, ‘Well, if that’s the case I’m not going to stand in your way.’”

On July 29, just in from vacation, Eakins traveled to Duke to give up a completely healthy kidney to a complete stranger.

“We landed in Charlotte at about 7:30 p.m. and then my friend and I drove up to Duke, and my husband met us there,” Eakins said. “And I had to report to the ER at 4 o’clock.”

Eakins was in the operating room by 6 a.m. for a three-hour surgery.

While Eakins and her husband both taught Beatty, the bond was with the entire family.

“I have to be honest. I have not always been strong. I’ve had my good days and I’ve had my bad days,” Beatty’s mother said.

The Beatty family faced many challenges. From the time Beatty was born, he was in and out of the hospital.

“I can say I was in the hospital more than I was in school,” Beatty said.

In 2016, while Beatty was waiting on a kidney, devastation hit. Hurricane Matthew flooded their home.

Despite losing it all, in December of that year, he got a kidney.

The surgery went well, but heartache would soon strike again.

In 2018, Hurricane Florence flooded their home again. They were forced to move out, even when the water receded, because of the mold and the risk to Beatty’s health.

He recalls that as one of the lowest times in his life.

“I thought if I stopped taking my medication and slowly died, that they could go ahead and get in the house and not worry about me,” Beatty said.

It was Eakins’ husband, the pastor, who helped Beatty through many dark days.

“There have been many times we’ve been in the parking lot in Burgaw, and we just stopped right there and we hold hands and we pray and cry,” the pastor said.

Beatty calls him his second dad.

“Even last Sunday, I asked him not to let me get lost on my way to college. Don’t let me forget who I am or where I come from,” Beatty said.

Despite his health challenges in high school, Beatty did well. In the fall, he will be going to UNC-Charlotte as he awaits a call any day for a new kidney.

It won’t be his former teacher’s kidney, but it will be because of the woman he calls his second mom. And because of her, a complete stranger will be getting a new kidney, too.

“I was talking to my husband about it that morning, and I said somebody has been praying and wanting a kidney. And because I made a decision, they’re going to get that,” Eakins said.