Michigan TV news anchor donates kidney to stranger after local woman’s desperate five-year wait: ‘Gift of life’

A Michigan television news anchor donated her kidney to a stranger — the ultimate “gift of life” that helped a local woman end her desperate five-year wait for a new organ.

Teresa Weakley of WOOD-TV, an NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, made the selfless decision to donate her kidney after learning of the plight of Jennifer VanderPoel, a mother of one who had six potential donors fall through. the last three years.

VanderPoel, 49, had to give up her career as an assistant professor at a local university because her chronic kidney disease required dialysis treatments three times a week.

“I’ve just run out of people that we know are willing to donate,” VanderPoel said during an interview with WOOD-TV last December.

“I’m just trying to keep my faith, that everything happens for a reason. But on the other hand, you know, every year it seems more and more bleak, doesn’t it?”

Weakley, co-anchor of WOOD-TV’s “Daybreak” morning news show, heard about VanderPoel’s search for a kidney through a mutual friend.

The 40-year-old mother of four young children said she had a gut feeling she had to do something about it — especially after learning about VanderPoel’s situation during a February 2023 conversation with a mutual friend at a Chuck E. Cheese’s.

“I trust those feelings,” Weakley told WOOD-TV.

“When I get an idea in my head, I usually do it. You can ask (my husband). It’s probably very frustrating at times.”

Weakley did some research online and tracked down VanderPoel’s donor search website, on which she wrote: “I am a wife, mother, daughter, friend and like you, I am many other things in this crazy life and beautiful. ”

“I really want to be here for my daughter, to see her graduate, to see her go to college and fulfill her dreams.”

Weakley said reading about VanderPoel’s childhood lupus diagnosis, which resulted in her kidneys failing, shook her.

“That’s part of what attracted me, I think,” Weakley said.

“My grandmother had lupus and she died mostly because of lupus.”

Weakley was only six months old when her grandmother died.

Days after the fateful conversation at Chuck E. Cheese, Weakley went for an evaluation at the local kidney transplant center in Grand Rapids, where she was told she was not a good match for VanderPoel.

But that didn’t stop the news anchor, who learned that Trinity Health Kidney Transplant Center participated in a voucher program that allows anyone to donate a kidney that would be matched with a more suitable recipient listed in a database nationwide run by the National Kidney Registry.

So Weakley’s kidney would go to a complete stranger somewhere in the US. In return, VanderPoel would receive a good voucher for a kidney from another matching stranger.

“The hurdle is always, ‘Oh, I’m not a match,'” Weakley said.

“(But) you don’t have to be. You can donate to someone without donating to them, and if more people knew that could change things for people who need kidneys.

After the successful operation last December, Weakley’s kidney was sent to a transplant center in Seattle, where it was implanted into a woman. Weakley’s kidney began producing urine immediately, according to WOOD-TV.

After Weakley’s surgery, VanderPoel was thrilled when she was told by the news station that the anchor anonymously donated a kidney to secure a voucher for her.

“You should have told me to have Kleenexes here! Is she okay?” VanderPoel told WOOD-TV after learning of Weakley’s kidney donation.

VanderPoel broke down in tears on camera.

“I truly cannot put into words how grateful I am for this gift of life and for giving me the opportunity to be a wife and a partner and, most importantly, a mother again,” said VanderPoel.

“Words will never express how meaningful, how grateful I am for this gift of life. This opportunity to have a life again, to live.”

VanderPoel received a kidney in September through the registry.

“I’m very grateful for the donor,” said Tom Heft, VanderPoel’s father.

“(Jennifer’s) mom passed away in January, and she feels like she’s influencing this thing up there by taking a kidney. I haven’t been so happy since I don’t know when. To me, she has always been a perfect daughter and now I will still have her.”