Math Teacher Decides to Donate Kidney to Teenage Student: ‘Why Not Help Someone?’

When Ohio high school math teacher Eddie McCarthy saw a Facebook post about one of his geometry students needing a kidney due to a rare hereditary condition, he went to get tested to see if they were a match. 

"When I originally signed up, you don't go into it thinking, 'I'm gonna donate my kidney.' You just go into it thinking, 'Let's see if we're a match. Let's see if it works,’” McCarthy told Good Morning America. "And then it just worked.”

On July 19, Roman McCormick, 15, will be receiving a kidney from McCarthy at the University of Michigan University Hospital in Ann Arbor, about an hour away from their Toledo homes. 

"The fact that my son was able to get a donor just means the world to me," Roman’s father Dan McCormick told GMA.

 "I'll never be able to … thank him enough for everything that he's done for us. He's a wonderful human being."

Roman has branchiootorenal or BOR syndrome, which affects tissue development and can cause ear and kidney malformations, according to the National Institutes of Health.

As Roman's BOR syndrome worsened, it led to stage 4 kidney disease; he’d need to go on dialysis if could not find a donor for a  kidney transplant.

"I'm not able to eat foods that most normal kids will be able to. I'm not able to be more [physically] active because [my] kidneys are slowing down my physical activity," Roman told GMA, noting that the condition makes him feel run down. 

The family was looking for a live donor for two years before McCarthy matched with Roman.

"There's people out there who need kidneys … You technically don't need both of yours. So, why not help someone who really really needs it?" McCarthy told GMA.

"It's totally worth it to just go for it. Go get checked out and see if you're a match."