FORT VALLEY, Ga. — A Fort Valley Police officer is getting a new kidney, thanks to a woman he barely knew.
Captain Jerrell Smith heads the Patrol Division of the Fort Valley Police Department, where he has been for the last 27 years.
For the last 5 years, he's been on dialysis waiting for a new kidney.
"It's a necessary evil," said Smith.
His girlfriend works with Tara Craig at Perry Middle School.
"She said, 'Well, we're just worried about Jerrell's health,' and I said, 'Well, I hope everything is OK.' I didn't want to pry. She just told me that he needed a kidney," said Craig.
Craig said donating a kidney is something she has always wanted to do.
She teaches 6th grade and her students do a research project on it every year, so she already knew the basics.
"I went home that weekend and I just really prayed," she said. "I really feel like this is just what God was calling me to do," so she said she would do it.
"I said, 'I know this is crazy, but I really want to donate my kidney.'"
Smith said it came as a shock.
"It's just a blessing. I had no idea that this was going to happen. Like I said, I don't know her and she didn't know me, but now we're good friends," said Smith.
The two aren't an exact match. She's blood type B and he's type O.
Instead of Craig giving her kidney directly to Smith, they signed up for a donor pairing program together.
That moved them to the top of the list and just a few weeks later, they found a match for Smith in Utah.
"These people in Utah have probably been praying for someone to come be a match for them, and so we're answering their prayers and answering our prayers and two people get to have a new kidney because of this," said Craig.
Their surgeries are scheduled for Thursday in Atlanta.
Smith said he's excited, but a little nervous.
Craig agrees, but said she just can't wait for Jerrell's life to change.
"I'm just so excited for Jerrell that he's gonna have a normal life and not have to do dialysis."
Craig said she wants everyone to know that even if you aren't an exact match, there are different options out there to be able to change someone's life.
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