Emory Nurse Donates Kidney to Patient

When 23-year-old Clay Taber checked into , the hospital could barely find a room for him.

Taber was in desperate need of a kidney transplant after being diagnosed with Goodpasture’s Syndrome, a rare life-threatening autoimmune disorder related to antibody formation in the body. About one-in-one million people get the disease, and he was lucky that doctors caught the disease early enough to save his other organs.

But Taber still suffered from kidney failure, and after several weeks in the hospital, he was sent home to continue dialysis and hope for a possible match for a transplant.

During his time on the transplant floor at Emory Hospital in Druid Hills, he met Allison Batson, a transplant nurse at Emory Hospital.

When he left the hospital, Batson told Taber she would be screened as a possible match as an organ donor.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Taber said in a statement. “Everybody I came in contact with at Emory was so incredibly nice and supportive of me, and then here was this woman who said 'If I can save your life, you can count on me.' What do you say to that?”

A few months later, Batson donated a kidney to Taber.

“Here was this young man with everything in his life ahead of him, and he was fighting for his life,” Batson said. “He quickly became friends of many of the staff, and really was just a tremendous inspiration to us all.”

During Taber’s time at Emory, Batson said she “learned more about Clay, his family, his life, what he saw for his future.”

“He wanted to get married to his sweetheart,” she said. “He just graduated from college. The whole world was his, with the exception of this incredibly rare illness that hit him out of the blue. I have children his age, and I felt the same kind of pain his mother was feeling. Something inside me said I needed to do more.”

According to Emory doctors, both surgeries on Jan. 10 went well.

Taber will need to be monitored closely, but the chances of success with the transplant are “very, very high,” doctors said in a news conference on Friday, Jan. 13.

There are over 90,000 people on the kidney transplant list, doctors said, and only about 16,000 transplants are done each year. Only about 6,000 are from live donors.

Taber, an Auburn graduate, said he plans to pursue full-time work, possibly in the banking industry, and get married to his college sweetheart.

“For her to do something like that was completely overwhelming and very special, and it made me feel very blessed,” Taber said.

Batson said she didn’t become a transplant nurse to donate organs, and the opportunity to help Taber simply presented itself.

“People have asked me why I would do this for a stranger, or what if I had a family member in need one day, or why would I risk my own life or health for someone I barely know,” she said. “My answer is because I can. Sure, I have children who might possibly be in need one day, but here was this young man right in front of me who needs help - today, and I am in a position to help him - today. If what I do for Clay causes more awareness among others that live organ donation is a possibility, then I can only hope that other lives will be saved because of my actions.”