Allison Batson, Nurse, Donates Kidney To Patient Clay Taber

Not only is Clay Taber about to marry his college sweetheart, but the 23-year-old now has a new lease on life thanks to a nurse who offered her own kidney to transplant to her ailing patient.

Allison Batson treated Taber at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after blood tests revealed he suffered from Goodpasture's Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that can cause renal failure, according to a press release from the hospital.

Taber was just 22-years-old at the time, fresh out of Auburn University and recently engaged.

After returning from vacation in the Gulf of Mexico, Taber began experiencing symptoms.

Doctors ordered blood work that revealed Taber was experiencing kidney failure.

Shortly after the results came in, Taber was placed in the hospital, where he would remain for weeks while undergoing several procedures, including dialysis.

Batson was a nurse assigned to Taber's floor, and with children of her own close to Taber's age, she formed a special bond with the family.

When Taber was placed on the waiting list for a kidney, Batson said she felt compelled to help out in a special way.

"The whole world was his, with the exception of this incredibly rare illness that hit him out of the blue," Batson said in the press release. "Something inside me said I needed to do more."

Taber's mother didn't qualify as a match, but after undergoing tests, Batson found out she did.

"The only thing I was nervous about in this entire process was that somebody was going to tell us we couldn't do it," Batson told MSNBC.

The operation took place on Jan. 10, about a year after the pair met for the first time, and both Batson and Taber are now doing just fine.

Taber is set to marry his fiancee Laura Calhoun on June 9, and he plans to continue working toward a career in finance, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports.

The groom-to-be says he's grateful for what the nurse did for him.

"I told [Batson] she's going to get a special dance at the wedding, Taber told MSNBC. "She can pick out the song."

CORRECTION: Clay Taber was diagnosed with Goodpasture's Syndrome. A previous version of the photo caption incorrectly stated the name of the auto-immune disorder.

Comments

[BeanBoo]

01:20 PM on 02/08/2012

What an amazing story :) Always makes me feel great when someone gets a kidney!!

My mother is also looking for a kidney and we are turning to the internet for help. If you are interested in being tested, or if you just want to help us spread the word, please join the group Kidney for Karen on Facebook. Thanks!!!! http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/121000111248211/

[thudpucker]

09:45 PM on 01/18/2012

Bless all donors! They are angels. I recieved a kidney in Oct 2011 from my sister. I wish that more people would consider being donors.

[KanaMV86]

03:44 PM on 01/18/2012

Now THAT is going far and beyond the call of duty :)

[David305]

05:33 PM on 01/17/2012

If it wasn't for religion we'd be manufacturing organs by now.

[Gineen Shawah]

03:19 PM on 01/16/2012

It's truly an amazing thing she has done. I'm a nurse and there are times where you want to do something more to save some of these people lives, especially ones with a very bright future ahead of them. She actually did it and I applaud her for that.

I do believe in true altruism, and can fully understand it.

[giftoflife1]

03:00 PM on 01/16/2012

Allison Bateson is a true altruist. Until recently (this decade) the transplant community was suspicious of altruistic living donation. Historically, corporations that run dialysis units viewed dialysis patients as profit centers, and were remiss in referring patients to transplants. Well- meaning nephrologists had little experience with living donor transplantation, and some were downright opposed to them. This is, thankfully, changing. The morbidity rate on dialysis is still quite high, but some dialysis social workers are taking the lead and providing their patients with more information about transplant options. Transplant facilities are becoming more familiar with altruistic living donors, such as Allison. The potential donor still has the necessary medical and psychological tests before being approved as a donor. Thankfully, the anti-living donor bias is gradually disappearing. Now if the dialysis corporations would get on board, that would mean only those who choose dialysis, and/or whose only option is dialysis would undergo it. More would people with ESRD would live healthier lives. While living donation isn't for everyone, those who choose to save a life through living donation are true heroes.

[ChicagoBob]

12:50 AM on 01/16/2012

What an absolutely wonderful thing to do.

What courage. This is Nobel Prize behavior. Allison Batson, I adore you, and both my kidneys are fine.

[electricladyland]

11:25 PM on 01/15/2012

She'll never do that again.

[Bobotheclown]

10:27 PM on 01/15/2012

It is estimated that there is a need for an additional 1,000,000 new and replacement nurses as of 2010. The trend has been going down in the nursing profession due to the severe financial cutbacks effecting all hospitals. But there are also fewer nurses entering the field due to nursings negative image, low status, and relatively low pay. This coupled with the high stress of the job has caused a significant percentage of nurses top leave the field for higher paying opportunities in other fields and take with them the training and exerience that would have mentored other nurses.

It seems to be a common story that the most valuable members of the work force are the lowest paid while parasites who gamble with other peoples money suck Trillions out of the economy and the pockets of workers. Sully Sullenberger who landed the US Airways jet in the river without loss of life had just had his pay reduced by 40% and his pension terminated. This nurse who gave her kidney will also have her pay cut as the hospital around her contracts. When she has nothing to eat when she retires will anyone be there for her?

Its time we stopped counting on sacrifice to keep the system working and started demanding justice for every worker and every nurse.

[mountainram]

01:36 AM on 01/16/2012

Bingo! I worked 20 years as a nurse including 6 years as a critical care nurse. I retired after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Once my COBRA coverage ended I couldn't get medical insurance. We had to sell our house, plus like everyone else I lost half of my 401K to the stock market during the Bush years. I helped save thousands of lives, but I couldn't afford my own medical care. Now I'm on Medicare. Thank God! And if the Republicans had their way they'd take away that too!

[Bobotheclown]

10:07 AM on 01/16/2012

There has been an across the board reimagining of the work place that is uncontested by the people who we trusted to defend our interests. The recognition of the amazing increases in efficiency of the American worker (which is responsible for the economy being as strong as it is) is just another way of saying that everyone is being forced to work harder for less pay. There is no other way of defining this than that the American worker is sacrificing themselves, their health, their prosperity, and their very lives, to keep the system going for the ultimate benefit of others.

But this is not noble nor is it voluntary. It is the spectacle of workers being caught in the gears of the system that they built because the people running the machine have lost sight of the goals of civilization. You can blame this on money or on ideology but the real reason is intolerance and the mental defect of greed. These are attributes that we used to know as vices but which now define our society. We have cripples running things and a system that cannot correct it. All civilizations collapse the same way and this is the first true test of the American idea since it was born.

This is not the end and a rebirth of society is still possible but probably not in time to help the many people that are in your situation. Good luck to you and thank you for your service.

[infodoc1]

09:15 PM on 01/15/2012

We hear so much about the corrupt and greedy people of the world, but there is human kindness all around us. Great story

[lilacluvr]

09:13 PM on 01/15/2012

There are still good people in this world. It's only the ones who are ill-tempered, arrogant and proud of their ignorance seems to be the people that get the most press.

[underdoneone]

10:47 PM on 01/15/2012

You are SO right..

[yakmeat]

08:28 PM on 01/15/2012

Ms. Batson -

As a person with several members of my family (including my mother) who are still alive thanks to kidney transplants, I have seen with my own eyes the miracle that you have given to Mr. Taber.

Thank you!

Please consider running for public office. I don't know if you know anything about public policy, economics, law, etc. but your heart is in the right place and you clearly understand what it means to empathize and care for others. Our political culture could really use some of that.

[seikena]

08:07 PM on 01/15/2012

A truly magnificent act, in the spirit of what the the great religions always
preach but few religious individuals ever practice. How many of our religious leaders, full of
bombast and self importance, have ever offered to donate a kidney to some
dying body...and soul? It would be a test for them and most would fail it.

[Forestgunk]

08:05 PM on 01/15/2012

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13
Thank you Allison Batson for your selflessness and generosity. If only our politicians, both Democrat and Republican, felt, spoke, and acted in the same manner.

Regards,

Forestgunk

[jokamachi]

07:30 PM on 01/15/2012

I thought she had something else in mind....