St. Paul student's kidney donation chain saves 3 lives

KMSP TV | Scott Wasserman
One selfless act can make a big difference in the lives of countless people, and that is certainly true when it comes to giving the gift of life. An 8-year-old boy is alive today because a law student in St. Paul decided to start a kidney donation chain.

At his young age, Zach Elsenpeter is full of non-stop energy and is always on the go. Yet, less than a year ago, the second-grader could not do the things he's doing now.

"It was horrible to watch him decline every single day," Stacey Elsenpeter told FOX 9 News. "We didn't know how much longer he had left."

Stacey Elsenpeter knew her son was deteriorating due to kidney failure. For three years, they searched for a donor, but Zach had just a 3 percent chance of finding a match.

"We had over 2,000 people call in to save his life, and we could not find a match," she recalled.

That's when an anonymous, out-of-state donor came through, but the man never would have met Zach without Andy Halverson's selfless act of giving.
KMSP-TV

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