Life-Saving Kidney Transplant Needed For Summit Police Officer

SUMMIT, NJ — Serving the Summit community for more than 20 years, Summit Police Officer Karen Strenstrom Sauers is now in need of a life-saving transplant.

Sauers was diagnosed at age 24 with polycystic kidney disease — an inherited disorder in which clusters of cysts develop primarily within the kidneys, causing them to lose function over time. At the time of the diagnosis, she was told that one day she would need a kidney transplant to prolong her life. Now is that time.

The Summit Police Department, Fire Department, Volunteer First Aid Squad and others are raising awareness about the immediate need for a living donor kidney transplant for Officer Sauers.

Raised in Summit from the age of eight, Sauers was a scholar and an athlete, according the city.

She was co-captain of the women’s lacrosse team, graduated from Summit High School in 1989 and pursued a degree in education at Boston College.

After graduation, Sauers returned to Summit and began teaching in Newark public schools, as well as volunteering on the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad.

But when she watched the Twin Towers fall on Sept. 11, 2001, Sauers realized that she was "meant to serve the community in a different way" and enrolled in the John H. Stamler Police Academy.

She is now a decorated police officer in Summit and has served the community for more than 20 years.

Sauers met and married Jon Sauers, also a Summit Police Department officer, and is a co-parent to Andy, age 20, and the devoted mother of 13-year-old twins Tommy and Maggie.

"None of her immediate family or relatives are a match for a kidney transplant so her life depends on receiving a donor kidney," the city wrote.

Sauers is currently a patient with the Living Donor Institute at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center — a program that allows patients with chronic kidney disease to receive kidney transplants from living donors and deceased donors as soon as possible.

While receiving a kidney from a deceased donor would prolong Karen’s life for a handful of years, a living donor kidney would extend Karen’s life expectancy for 10 to 15 more years, according the city.

“Officer Karen Sauers is one of the kindest and most positive individuals I know,” said Summit Police Chief Steven Zagorski. “Throughout her distinguished career with the agency and now on this difficult journey, she has shown great strength and commitment. As colleagues and friends, we want to do everything possible to help find a potential donor. Please consider learning more about it.”

For more information on the process of kidney donation, visit https://www.CBMCLivingDonor.org. People are advised to include the code KARENSAUERS if completing the health history questionnaire so all potential matches are connected to Officer Sauers.

For more information on Officer Karen Stenstrom Sauers and the Summit Police Department go to https://www.cityofsummit.org/p... or contact Nikki Griffiths at 908-277-9472.

Have a news tip? Email remy.samuels@patch.com.