They're a match made in heaven
School janitor in Minnesota gets life-saving kidney from teacher
Patrick Mertens needed a kidney, and, feeling desperate, his daughter, Kayla, posted a request on Facebook in January.
Mertens, 64, a school custodian, hadn't bothered asking his co-workers at Kimball Elementary School in Kimball, Minn., as he searched for a donor. He didn't want to inconvenience any of the teachers. But when Erin Durga, a Grade 3 teacher at the school, saw the post, she knew she wanted to help. So she reached out and after some tests learned that she was a match. It was decided.
The Mertens were floored. Durga and Mertens first met after Durga moved to Fairhaven, Minn., in 2011 and began teaching at Kimball Elementary.
Every evening, while Durga finished work, Mertens, who also started that year as a custodian, cleaned her classroom after he was finished with his other tasks, including sweeping the cafeteria and replenishing toilet paper.
Mertens realized how serious his health situation was in February 2018 when he woke up in the middle of the night in pain, and after a visit to the emergency room, learned that his kidneys were failing. His doctor told him that he needed a new kidney, and that finding a match probably would take three to 10 years, Mertens said. Lynda Mertens said she was told that her husband probably would die if he didn't get a new kidney within five years.
Worse, Mertens has Type O blood, the hardest to match, said Annie Doyle, living- donor coordinator at M Health Fairview.
Elementary employees supported him, setting up a fundraising event in January for his treatment. But he still couldn't find a donor.
That's when his daughter posted on Facebook.
When Durga saw the post, she believed she could help Mertens, despite not knowing her blood type.
“I felt in my heart, from the very beginning, that this was my thing,” said Durga, who has three children and raises chickens and rabbits. “Once I decided that, yes, I'm going to donate to Pat, I felt really good about it, and I was at peace with it throughout the entire thing.”
Less than a month later, on July 3, Mertens was nervous driving to M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. When he arrived, though, Durga's composure calmed his nerves, he said. Before her surgery on the fourth floor, Durga insisted on speaking with Mertens. Hospital staff didn't comply right away, but after multiple requests, she was able to talk to Mertens and assure him the transplant would be successful. Durga was right.
When they spoke again that night after surgery, Mertens couldn't stop calling Durga an angel.
“I told Erin, when I first woke up out of surgery, it was nothing I've ever felt before,” said Mertens. “It was a new life.”
Mertens sent Durga flowers at Thanksgiving and still calls her to thank her. His wife tries to find the words.
“She's our miracle; our angel,” said Lynda Mertens. “We'll forever be grateful for her.”