More than 1,000 Kentuckians are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. That list is now one person shorter thanks to a selfless act from a stranger.
While some college students were headed to the beach on spring break, a medical student at Somerset Community College used that time to donate a kidney to someone she’d never met, a grandfather from Eastern Kentucky.
Danny Fitch is a retired coal miner from Johnson County. He’ll tell you his most important work is a husband, father, and grandfather. That’s a role he’s not ready to give up. But until recently, his kidneys were failing fast.
Danny has diabetes, a diagnosis he received at the age of ten. Now 60, he had few options for extending his life. Having watched his dad take dialysis, he knew it wasn’t the quality of life he wanted. So, Danny went on the transplant list last August. That’s when his family shared his story on social media in hopes of finding a donor.
"The Lord, he sent me an angel," Fitch told WKU Public Radio from his home in Meally, KY.
That angel was Cherish Strunk, 25, a student at Somerset Community College.
"There was never of thought of, 'No, I’m not doing this,'" she said.
A random social media scroll put her on a course to give someone a second chance at life. Eight months after going on the transplant list, Strunk responded to the Fitch family's request after seeing their Facebook postshared by a mutual friend.
"I just had this feeling and knew I was going to be a match. I knew he was the person I was meant to help," Strunk recalled. "Another main thing was I seen all his grandchildren and just how close he was with them and they were with him.”
Strunk and her husband live in Russell Springs. She’s on course to graduate in May with a certificate in surgical technology. But it wasn’t her clinicals in the operating room that prompted her to respond.
“I had always kind of thought about it, so I don’t think it really had much part in it, but it definitely made me less nervous seeing it every day and knowing that everything would be okay," Strunk said from her Russell County home.
The Fitch family was hopeful, but tried not to get too excited. Danny’s wife, Teresa, said another young woman had previously tested and wasn’t a match.
“That almost felt like it knocked the wind out of me for a minute," she remembered.
A friend’s husband passed away who was a registered organ donor, but he wasn’t a match either. As the saying goes, the third time was the charm. Strunk underwent testing through UK Healthcare in Lexington, and the results showed that she was a match.
“I was like, 'I’m going to donate a kidney,' and my mom was like, 'Yeah okay.' And then once we matched she was like, 'Oh gosh, you are actually going to donate a kidney.' But they were never trying to talk me out of it," Strunk said. "They were super supportive.”
"Emotional, but amazing"
As a 25-year-old with her whole life ahead, Teresa wondered if Strunk was certain of her decision.
“I did think about her Mom, being a mom myself. I never had thought about being a donor until all this came about," said Teresa Fitch. "I have a daughter myself. I put myself in her Mom’s shoes and I asked her and she said, 'No, my family is great about this.'”
A week before the surgery, Strunk, Fitch, and their families had an emotional first meeting in person.
“It was very emotional, but amazing," Strunk recalled. "There was no awkwardness like you would usually have meeting someone for the first time. It was like we had met before.”
On Feb. 29, Danny Fitch went into the hospital with only 12% function in his kidneys. Following a four-and-a-half-hour surgery, he walked out of the hospital three days later with 70% function. Fitch is now home, but under quarantine for three months to build up his immunity. When he spoke to WKU Public Radio, he was on 27 medications and had doctor’s appointments twice a week. But he’s also smiling and healthy.
Strunk is also back home and making plans to graduate. While the typical recovery for a donor is six weeks, Strunk plans to return to school on Tuesday, March 12, would would be less than two weeks post-surgery. She’s determined to walk across the stage and receive her diploma on May 3.
Once strangers, Danny Fitch and Cherish Strunk will be in each other’s lives forever. When Fitch’s quarantine is lifted, their families are planning a reunion this summer.
"We do sit around sometimes and he’ll say it’s hard to believe someone did this for me, someone we didn’t know, never been around," Teresa Fitch said.
“I just ain’t got the right words to thank her," added Danny Fitch.
What Strunk wants more than a "thank you" is for her story to inspire others to consider organ donation.
“I hope it gives people the courage to do it because it’s the most rewarding experience," she recalled while recuperating at home with her dog in her lap.
Danny Fitch, a deacon at his church, prayed for a matching kidney donor. Cherish Strunk was the match, a young woman, like him, with a servant’s heart.
