{"id":3497,"date":"2016-07-15T15:19:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T20:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/for-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=3497"},"modified":"2016-07-15T15:19:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T20:19:29","slug":"uw-la-crosse-student-leaves-a-lasting-impact-by-donating-a-kidney-to-a-stranger","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-la-crosse-student-leaves-a-lasting-impact-by-donating-a-kidney-to-a-stranger\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-La Crosse student leaves a lasting impact by donating a kidney to a stranger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UW-La<\/a>
UW-La Crosse senior Devyn Prielipp believes in living life compassionately. She donated a kidney to a stranger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UW-La Crosse senior Devyn Prielipp was only 14 when her mother was murdered during a domestic violence dispute.<\/p>\n

The tragedy changed the way she looked at life. She decided to live for today \u2014 a direction that led her to give life to someone else.<\/p>\n

Only three years after her family tragedy, Prielipp began talking to doctors about donating a kidney. She\u2019d read a story online about kidney donation and difference it could make \u2014 saving lives of those on waiting lists for years undergoing dialysis. Some get too sick to receive transplants, and others die waiting. About 13\u00a0people die each day waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.<\/p>\n

But as much as Prielipp wanted to donate in her youth, getting approval wasn\u2019t easy. Doctors urged her to wait and make sure the decision was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people my age are still maturing and are not sure what they want out of life,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want me to regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Prielipp\u2019s past taught her that life isn\u2019t guaranteed for anyone. She could go down the list of \u201cwhat if\u201d questions forever. \u201cWhat if her future child needs a kidney?\u201d or \u201cWhat if she is in a car accident and needs her own?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to live by those \u2018what if\u2019 questions. It\u2019s exhausting,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer in fate. Things are laid out for us, and what is going to happen will.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the best way to live is compassionately, she says.<\/p>\n

After three years of waiting, Prielipp says her mind hadn\u2019t wavered on donating. She kept calling doctors back and eventually was screened, tested and cleared for surgery in August 2015 at age 21.<\/p>\n

For Prielipp\u2019s non-directed kidney donation, she received the American Hero Award from the National Kidney Registry during the annual Season of Miracles Awards Gala May 4 at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Of the 15 non-directed donors invited, Prielipp was the youngest by decades.<\/p>\n

Prielipp says the hardest question she gets is why she decided to donate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have an ulterior motive or specific reason why,\u201d she says. \u201cI was born blessed with a healthy lifestyle and I just want to help someone else have the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donation inspires touching response<\/strong><\/p>\n

Six months after surgery, Prielipp received a call from UW Health. They had a letter from the recipient\u2019s family and needed her address.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy arm hair stood up,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was checking my mail like a crazy person. When it finally came, I opened it and my heart felt like it was exploding in my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prielipp\u2019s kidney went to a 14-year-old girl. The letter from the recipient\u2019s mom spoke of her daughter\u2019s ability to enjoy life in a way she couldn\u2019t before and her daughter\u2019s dream to go to art school. The letter included a drawing by the girl. It pictured her donor and \u201cthe girl who got your gift of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow that felt \u2014 I don\u2019t think there is an adjective for it,\u201d says Prielipp. \u201cI\u2019ve never had such an amazing feeling in my life. It made everything worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spreading compassion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The kidney donation wasn\u2019t the first time Prielipp reached out to help others. Several months after her mother, Teresa, was killed in July 2009, Prielipp helped organize the \u201cRemembering Teresa Run\/Walk.\u201d The annual event continues today to raise awareness about domestic violence while raising funds for organizations that support those affected by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was our family\u2019s way of coping,\u201d says Prielipp. \u201cMy mom would be upset if we lay around and felt sorry for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prielipp says her mom would likely be surprised to see how her compassion has grown \u2014 leading her to donate a kidney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think initially she would have been concerned about my health like any parent, since it was a major surgery,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I think she\u2019d be proud, especially because I have shown that I\u2019m still able to live the same healthy lifestyle with one kidney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altruism: nothing new at UW-La Crosse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prielipp doesn\u2019t think her story of giving is extraordinary at UWL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve met so many people in class who are equally as selfless and compassionate,\u201d she says. \u201cMy experiences here have helped me grow into the person I\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheri Niedzwiecki, associate professor of communication studies, meets many students who volunteer, fund raise for causes and give back in other ways. But until she met Prielipp, she had never heard of a student donating a kidney. She was particularly touched by her student\u2019s donation because her father died of kidney disease four years ago and she knew the difficulty of living on dialysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always blown away by the things our student do for others,\u201d Niedzwiecki says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UW-La Crosse senior Devyn Prielipp was only 14 when her mother was murdered during a domestic violence dispute. The tragedy changed the way she looked at life. She decided to live for today \u2014 a direction that led her to give life to someone else. Only three years after her family tragedy, Prielipp began talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[104],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-3497","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-la-crosse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}