Childhood Babysitter Gives Kidney to Adult Woman

It wasn’t a relative who gave Etienne Cromer her kidney - but close enough. Cromer’s childhood babysitter showed up at Johns Hopkins Hospital this week to go under the knife for the donation surgery.

Sounds like Kendra Dill was more the “shh, I won’t tell Mom you had two cookies after school” kind of sitter instead of the “go watch TV and leave me alone to make out with  my boyfriend” kind.

According to ABC7 News, twenty-three-year-old Cromer has suffered from kidney disease since she was a teenager, but giving birth to her own child was too much for her body. It was a transplant or a life on dialysis, with a decreased quality of life and most likely a reduced chance of a long life. As it is, the young mom was hooked up to a dialysis machine three times a week.

Her community took up her cause, throwing a benefit golf tournament to help a kidney group Cromer belonged to and get out the word about organ donation.

Then Dill came forward. She had planned to give her kidney once before - to her own brother. But Dill’s brother Michael died before they could undergo the surgery. She decided to give to Cromer instead, in honor of Michael. Doctors told ABC7 they’re both faring well.

This reminds me of the mom who said she didn’t want her sitter telling her kids she loved them. I argued - along with a lot of Strollerderby readers - that I’d rather leave my child in the hands of someone who DID care about her. It sounds like the Cromer family is OK with a little bit of “I love you.”

Image: ABC7

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Tags: babysitter, childcare, dialysis, Jeanne Sager, kidney, kidney donation, motherhood, organ donation, transplant