Lake Area Teacher Donates Her Kidney To Local Student

A Lake Charles teacher is donating her kidney to a student she has never met.

Heather Mallet is a science teacher at F.K. White Middle School, and she's poised to save 13-year-old Hayden Diaz’s life.

Mallet told KPLC:

I never doubted it, never blinked an eye, it’s just something I know I’m supposed to do

Last year Hayden's kidneys essentially stopped working and now they're only functioning at 10 percent.

Heather told KPLC's Luke Burshall that she had a dear friend that helped inspire her actions:

In 2016, I had a very good friend who was suffering from diabetes and doing dialysis and I convinced him to let me donate a kidney to him," Mallet said. “And he would always tell me to donate to a child.

Mallet's friend passed away from his complications, and when she heard about Hayden's situation she knew what she had to do:

About 6 months later, Hayden enrolled at F.K. White, his kidneys failed, both kidneys failed, and I just knew that it was a sign