See the Selfless Decision This Teacher Made to Save Her Student's Life

Eight-year-old Natasha "Tasha" Fuller is recovering with her new lease on life after her teacher gave her the most selfless gift of all this week. In March, Tasha's grandmother, Chris Burelton, was called to her granddaughter's school in Oakfield, WI, for a meeting with first-grade teacher Jodie Schmidt and principal Becky Doyle. Burelton thought she was called there because Tasha was acting up in school, but she soon learned the meeting was for a much happier cause.

Tasha was suffering from prune belly syndrome, a condition she'd had since birth that can result in urinary tract disease. She was living with her grandparents so she could get dialysis at a nearby hospital and was in need of a new kidney. It was at that meeting in school that the grandmother learned that Tasha's teacher was not only a match for the first grader, but that Schmidt wanted to donate her kidney to the little girl. Schmidt and Principal Doyle hatched a plan to reveal the news via a gift to Tasha's grandmother.

"We gave her a gift box, and under the tissue paper was a card with the words: 'It's a match,'" Schmidt told the Fond du Lac Reporter. "I just lost it," Burelton said. "Jodi is an awesome woman, and I was just totally shocked. Speechless."

This week, Schmidt's kidney was successfully transferred into Tasha and the spunky little girl is on the road to recovery. Her family issued a touching statement thanking everyone once the surgery was over. "Thanks to Jodi's amazing gift and support of her family, we are with Tasha as she recovers and gets stronger after the transplant," the family shared via their hospital. "Her doctors at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin say that everything went well and that we could not have asked for a better organ. We are so grateful for the outpouring of support our family has received, particularly from Oakfield Elementary staff and students, along with her friends and family in Grandfield, OK. Tasha looks forward to seeing you all as soon as she can."

As for Schmidt, at the time of the donation she remarked, "I think we're all brought to a certain place and time for a reason."

There couldn't be a more selfless teacher than that.