Preschool teacher saves former student’s life by donating her liver: ‘The tears keep coming’
Ezra Toczek, 5, got more than a gold star from his preschool teacher — he received a liver.
The young child was put on the transplant list in February after being diagnosed with end-stage liver disease, and subsequent liver failure, as a result of damage to the organ suffered at birth.
But in March, his former preschool teacher Carissa Fisher applied to become a living donor — someone who is healthy and donates an organ or a part of an organ to someone in need of one — after hearing of Ezra’s condition.
Last week, she learned she had been approved.
On Saturday, May 25, Fisher arrived at the Toczek family’s Western New York home to deliver the good news in person, with a stuffed animal, balloons and a handmade sign in tow.
“We are completely overwhelmed with her kindness and generosity and sacrifice, and it keeps hitting us unexpectedly that it’s really happening and we’re really going to be able to move forward, and we’re so grateful,” Karen Toczek, Ezra’s mother, told People.
On Facebook, Karen said she “literally couldn’t process” the news at first, calling it “the most amazing gift.”
“The tears keep coming, and though I knew we’d be relieved to get the news eventually, I had no idea just how it would hit me!” she wrote.
Speaking with WKBW, Fisher described breaking the news as “emotional.”
“You never know whose life you are going to be changing,” she said.
“It made me very happy to see both of them happy.”
Now, the teacher will need to “sit through a two-week ‘reflection period’ before the donor team can work with her to schedule a date for surgery,” Karen explained to People.
While the family has hopes for a liver transplant as soon as this summer in New York City, in the interim, Ezra “is hanging in there.”
“We are very fortunate that they were able to get him approved to be listed when they did, rather than waiting until he’s critically ill,” Karen continued.
“He has struggles, fatigue, sleep difficulties, and days where he just isn’t feeling well, but overall he is a trooper, and finds joy and every day.”
