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Detroit gym teacher donates kidney to high school senior

On Tuesday, 18-year-old A’Ja Booth returned to her Detroit high school with a new kidney.

Students celebrated Booth’s return by throwing confetti in her direction as she walked down a red carpet in West Side Academy’s gym. She was arm-in-arm with her kidney donor: gym teacher Nadirah Muhammad.

Muhammad, 39, gave Booth a kidney in December.

“I’m really thankful and blessed for receiving a kidney from Ms. Muhammad. I cannot thank her anymore than anything she has done for me. I look at her as my second mother,” Booth told her schoolmates.

"We have been going through this for about a year now, but since I’ve had the kidney, it has been successful, doing what I have to do to take care of it,” she continued. “I can’t thank her enough, she is a blessing.”

For the last four years, Booth had been leaving class early three days a week to undergo kidney dialysis. She wrote a book, titled “My Dialysis Journey,” chronicling her experience. That book led Muhammad to offer her a kidney.

Last spring, Muhammad overheard Booth talking about her book with another teacher.

“After I read her story, I immediately decided that I wanted to volunteer to donate one of my kidneys,” Muhammad told the Detroit Free Press. “If that was my child, I would want someone to do the same. It was a no-brainer.”

After months of testing, doctors determined that the student and teacher were a match.

The Dec. 15 transplant was a success. Booth continues to take anti-rejection drugs and is otherwise healthy and looking forward to a bright future.

Booth will graduate next month and plans to attend Oakland University in the fall. She hopes to become a nurse.

Dr. Jason Denny, senior staff surgeon and director of the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program at Henry Ford Hospital, spoke to the crowd celebrating Booth’s return, highlighting the importance of organ donation, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“The original miracle of life is God’s gift. We agree with that,” Denny told the students. “But right where you are, you can also give the gift of life. Ms. Muhammad did that for A'Ja.”

Earlier this year, we shared the story of a Grade 1 teacher in Texas and her decision to donate a kidney to one of her young classmates, Matthew Parker.

“I have a ten-year-old and six-year-old at home, little boys. And I just can’t imagine having a child who is going through what Matt has gone through,” Lindsey Painter told News 4 San Antonio.

“He has the right to be able to run, be loud and play – just like every other kid his age does,” she said in a statement issued by the school district.

“It will be a story to tell when he gets older,” Matthew’ mother, Lisa Parker, told News 4 San Antonio. “She was selfless and just a giving person. I think it’s really a miracle.”