Teacher Who Didn't Want Children Is Adopting Student He Helped Get Life-Saving Kidney

Feb 24, 2020

Finn Lanning is a math and science teacher at the AXL Academy in Aurora, Colorado. His life changed after a brief conversation with his student Damien.

The 12-year-old walked up to Lanning to inform him that he would be leaving class. Damien suffered from an autoimmune disease that had seriously damaged his kidneys. As he had been in foster care for the last four years, he was taken off the waiting list for a transplant and was due to enter in-hospital care for the foreseeable future.

Finn knew Damien from several of his classes and described him as a smart and funny youngster who worked hard in his studies. He was absolutely stunned when his student gave him the news. Until that fateful day, he hadn't even been aware that Damien had a serious medical condition. The young boy suffers from focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a rare autoimmune disease with genetic causes.

 Finn recalled that he was speechless when the boy gave him this news and felt a need to help the boy in his life outside of class.

Finn began visiting the boy at his hospital room on a weekly basis. Damien's kidneys had stopped functioning, and he was on dialysis for 12 hours every day. Without a kidney transplant, the boy would not survive for long. However, medical professionals had taken him off the waiting list for a kidney transplant as Damien had been living in foster care for the last four years. Damien would need a lot of attention and care after a kidney transplant and his former foster care families had declined to on this responsibility.

Finn Lanning was stunned when he heard this.

Finn never had any parenting experience, was a confirmed bachelor and had always preferred living childless, but the situation let him do some heavy soul-searching. He realized with sudden clarity that someone had to step up to the role because the child's life depended on it and that this person was him, as reported here by CBS News. Unwilling to let his student just die, he stepped up and entered the foster care process.

The math teacher was deemed fit to become a foster parent shortly afterward, and this made it possible for the boy to receive a new kidney and leave the hospital a couple of months later. 

Thankfully, with Finn providing the stable home needed, Damien was placed back on the waiting list and in June 2019, a matching kidney was found. While the transplant was successful, People reports that Damien suffered some side effects due to his autoimmune disease at first. He survived the ordeal, however, and is now back in school. He is even participating in school athletics and enjoys swimming. At home, Damien and Finn like spending time together in the kitchen because cooking is a pastime that they both enjoy.

They spent Christmas 2019 with Finn's family and the math teacher has started the adoption process.

Do you think any teachers you had would be willing to take on a parental role for one of his students? Let us know in the comments, and pass this on to your friends to share this wonderful happy end story with them.