MCADOO — Just a few months ago, Kimberly Whittaker struggled to help her young daughters with their homework.
“My mom would have to help them. I couldn’t do it,” she said. “We’d plan to go places. We couldn’t do anything or go anywhere because I’d be so sick.”
It broke the single mother’s heart.
Kimberly, Kline Township, had been suffering with end-stage kidney failure for almost four years and hourslong rounds of dialysis left her sick and tired almost daily.
On top of it, there were times she’d feel hopeless.
But that’s all changed now, thanks to a Facebook plea for a kidney, a lot of prayers and the generosity of a complete stranger from Richmond, Virginia.
“She is just the most amazing person,” Kimberly said of her kidney donor, Kelly Petruskevich, 29.
Kimberly had just marked her 30th birthday when she came down with what she thought was a cold. Doctors thought the same thing.
“All of a sudden, I lost my vision. I couldn’t see,” she said.
She was admitted to the hospital where tests revealed she was in end-stage renal failure. She was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis, a disease that was likely brought on by the return of a cold-like virus.
Her daughter, Makayla, had just turned 5, and daughter, Abby, was 3.
“At the hospital, the diagnosis didn’t sink in. It was all just shock. Afterward, it was, ‘This is my life now. I’m stuck in treatment. I needed dialysis or I won’t be here,’ ” Kimberly said.
Dialysis sessions lasted hours. She remembers sitting there, watching tubes siphon and return blood to her veins. By the time sessions were over, she often felt sick. She’d develop severe headaches and would often be so tired that she’d need to return to bed.
Her parents, Wayne and Cheryl Wilcko, McAdoo, were a wonderful support but Kimberly hated explaining to her children why she’d have to cancel plans or why she couldn’t be at their cheerleading practices or school events.
“Mommy used to lay down a lot, right?,” she asked the girls, who nodded their heads in unison, during a recent interview at their home.
She was told that she’d need to wait a minimum of seven years for a kidney from a deceased donor. Family members and friends were tested to see if they could donate one to her, but none of them were a match.
In March 2017, Kimberly tuned into “Good Morning America” to watch a story about a Georgia woman, Kristi Callaway, who had connected people in need with kidney donors.
“I emailed her through Facebook to see if she could help. She got back to me immediately,” Kimberly recalled.
She got permission to post her photo — and her plea — to Callaway’s “Our Daddy Needs a Kidney” Facebook page. In the post, she wrote, “My kids are everything to me. I just want to be here for them and watch them grow up.” She listed her blood type and asked people to contact Geisinger Medical Center, Danville.
The post was shared a few hundred times and “liked” by almost 3,000 people.
“That’s when Kelly came through and she was a perfect match,” Kimberly recalled.
Kelly, 29, a mother of three, said she had never considered becoming a kidney donor until a friend shared Kimberly’s post with her.
“I had to do this,” Kelly said. “She’s a mom just like me. I can’t imagine the feeling of not being about to do everything with your kids. I couldn’t imagine having to go to dialysis and not spend time with my kids.”
Kelly contacted Geisinger for a blood sample kit. When she learned she was the perfect candidate, she never looked back.
In fact, she stayed persistent, frequently calling the hospital to make sure pre-surgery would go on.
While Kimberly was excited, she wondered if it would ever happen.
“I don’t think it became real until we got our official date and even then I couldn’t believe it,” Kimberly admitted.
The date was set for Jan. 18.
The two kept in contact online but didn’t meet in person until a week before surgery.
“That’s when it really sank in, when I got to meet her and everything,” Kimberly said.
Before surgery, Kelly sent Abby and Makayla a copy of the book, “Our Mommy is Getting a Kidney.” She wrote a message inside to the girls, Abby said.
On surgery day, doctors harvested Kelly’s kidney then wheeled Kimberly into surgery. Kelly, despite doctor’s orders, was out of bed just hours later and paid Kimberly a visit as she recovered.
She continued checking on Kimberly during her stay, Kimberly recalled.
Dr. Anil Kotru, transplant surgeon at Geisinger, said there are about 120,000 people in the United States who are in need of a kidney transplant. In the northeastern part of the country, a typical wait time is up to five years for a donation from a non-living donor.
Thanks to donors like Kelly, including those who donate their kidneys to organ pools, wait times can be slashed to between six and eight weeks.
Kotru said the surgery was successful.
“Both have recovered well and are living completely normal lives,” he said.
Kelly, whose children range in age from 1 to almost 7, recently planted a garden and built a chicken coop.
“Kim is back to enjoying time with her young children,” Kotru said.
Kimberly said she began to feel better almost immediately. When she returned home, however, her daughters were so used to her being ill that they were concerned.
“She was scared. She thought she was going to break me,” Kimberly said of Makayla.
It’s quite the opposite, though.
“I have so much more energy now. I’m up in the morning. I feel so much different,” Kimberly said. “Now we can go places. We go to stores. We cook a lot. We bake. We do a lot more crafts because we love crafts.”
She’s also able to help in one of many ways she couldn’t before.
“I get to help you with your homework now, right?” she asked Abby and Makayla.
Kimberly and Kelly have kept in close contact.
“Now we have Snapchats together and we snap pictures back and forth. She’ll send me pictures of her kids,” Kimberly said.
And Kelly, who noted no decline in her health or energy since the transplant, said she just received a birthday card and present in the mail from Kimberly.
“She’s so sweet,” Kelly said.
Kimberly has raised scars on her left arm, proof of the dialysis she underwent for years. She also proudly displays a semicircular surgery scar on the right side of her abdomen. She said she likes to see it there; it reminds her of what she went through and of the kindness of a complete stranger.
She also said that she recently made a decision.
“I’m an organ donor now — everything but my kidney,” she said with a smile.
Contact the writer: jwhalen@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3592