West Pierce firefighter saves a life by donating her kidney to a stranger

GIG HARBOR, Wash. --  A Pierce County firefighter helped save the life of a total stranger by donating her kidney. She says she was inspired after watching her own mother battle kidney disease.

“This is another way to help people, it’s just a different way to do it,” says Jo Kummerle.

She says she’s used to helping people as a firefighter and paramedic. But what she did last fall goes beyond the call of duty. She donated her kidney to Tressa Dombroski, a total stranger living on the other side of the country.

“I just felt this need,” Jo explains. “Like I have a purpose or something more that I needed to do in my life.”

Jo got the idea from her mom Mona, who needed a kidney transplant in 2013. No one in the family was a match, so doctors put Mona into a 15-person donation chain. One person in the chain donated a kidney to Mona.  Jo’s sister then donated a kidney to someone else in the chain.

“It was all anonymous, in that we don’t know who it went to or came from.”

According to the National Kidney Foundation, there are 100,791 people in the U.S. on the kidney transplant list right now. Most wait over three years to find a donor, but some don’t make it. On average, 13 people die a day while on the transplant list.

When Jo found out about those statistics, she talked to her mom’s doctors at UW Medical Center about becoming a donor.

“They said it was unusual. Usually when somebody in the family is set, that’s the end of it.”

Jo underwent surgery in October. She finally met Tressa, her kidney recipient, last month. The two women are the same age. They’re both mothers and now friends.

“We’ve communicated every day since and it’s been way more than I ever could have imagined,” says Jo.

That’s why she says more people should think about donating.

“In a way, I think why not? You have an opportunity to literally save someone’s life, it’s a given. Why wouldn’t you?”