Oakfield teacher to give kidney to first-grader
OAKFIELD - It’s not something Jodi Schmidt can put into words — how one day while she was driving it hit her so hard she had to pull off the road and call her husband.
“It truly just came to me after I did a lot of thinking and praying,” Schmidt said. “I told him, Rich, I want to give a student one of my kidneys.”
Maybe it’s the way first-grader Natasha Fuller peeks into her classroom and waves while Schmidt is teaching third-grade at Oakfield Elementary School that pulled at her heart. Or how she greets her in the hallway with a smile that betrays nothing of her ordeal.
The 8-year-old has been sick since birth, and for the past two years has been living with her grandparents Chris and Mark Burleton of Oakfield, so she can get the specialized care she requires from physicians at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Her parents and twin sister, Brookelynn, currently live in Oklahoma.
Natasha was born with prune belly syndrome, which can cause urinary tract disease and the need for kidney dialysis. The little girl and her grandmother have been traveling to Milwaukee three times a week so Natasha can receive dialysis, but she is currently in renal failure and will soon run out of options.
For years the first-grader has been waiting for a kidney, but she often develops infections, and when that happens it bumps the youth off the transplant list, her grandmother said.
“You could never tell this little girl has three tubes in her, she doesn’t let it faze her,” Burleton said. “She is happy and sassy, and she just wants to lead a normal life, and do things like go swimming.”
After Schmidt made her decision and went through all the necessary medical tests that confirmed she was a healthy match for Natasha, she told Oakfield Elementary Principal Becky Doyle that when the time came for the transplant, she’d have to be off of work for about eight weeks. A transplant team of nine at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa is helping Schmidt through the process.
The two then came up with a plan to call Natasha’s grandmother into the school office and break the news to her in a special way.
“We gave her a gift box, and under the tissue paper was a card with the words: ‘It’s a match,’” Schmidt said.
Burleton said she thought she was being called to school to talk about Natasha’s grades or her health.
“I just lost it,” she said. “Jodi is an awesome woman, and I was just totally shocked. Speechless.”
Doyle took a video of Natasha's grandmother opening the box, then called a staff meeting at the end of the day and showed the video. There was not a dry eye in the room.
"Jodi is extremely passionate, full of life and energy, and does everything 150 percent, " Doyle said. "She told me that she knows she is here to do more. She is always looking for ways to serve others."
Natasha understands a little, and knows "Mrs. Schmidt" is doing something that will make her feel better. Last Friday, on the way to dialysis, she asked her grandmother why God made her this way.
“I told her it was because she is a very special girl,” Burleton said.
If Natasha clears up from her latest infection by March 21, a date for the transplant could be set soon after, Burleton said.
Jodi and Rich Schmidt of Plymouth have three children of their own: Raegen, 13; Richard, 4, and 2-year-old Jack. This is Jodi’s ninth year teaching at Oakfield.
A benefit for Natasha is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, at The Roadhouse in Dundee.
“I have had some really good days in my life, and that was probably one of the best days of my life,” Schmidt said of watching Burleton's reaction when she learned her granddaughter would be getting a kidney.
“I think that life takes us on very different paths, and I now have no doubt I was brought to Oakfield for a reason."
Reach Sharon Roznik at sroznik@fdlreporter,com or 920-907-7936; on Twitter: @sharonroznik.