Middletown Teacher Donated His Kidney To Fellow Teacher

MIDDLETOWN, NJ ? Two teachers at Saint Leo the Great school in Middletown are beginning the school year with a unique connection: One of them donated his kidney to the other.

Mike Daneman, 33, teaches computer science at the Catholic elementary school in Lincroft, and Lauren Crupi, 37, teaches sixth and seventh-grade language arts.

For the past 15 years, Crupi has been battling a rare and deadly genetic kidney disease. Both her mother and her sister ended up needing a kidney transplant. She discovered she had the disease when she was 25, but it got worse in the past year: She was told last winter she would be on dialysis within a year.

"I just very slowly declined," she shared. "I really thought I would go on dialysis and wait my turn. I don't want to disrupt anyone. My husband and doctor nearly fell over when I said that. They told me if I got a living donor, my life expectancy would be much longer. So I agreed to start the search."

"She hid it very well. She's a very positive person, very upbeat," said her co-worker Daneman. "But I could tell she was getting exhausted. She would get winded coming up the stairs; she was always cold."

Crupi said it was scary to publicly ask for a new organ. "I feel like you are almost afraid, because what if no one does step up for you?"

It was in January of 2023 that her husband made her struggle public and posted on Facebook that his wife needed a donor. Word spread through the tight-knit Catholic school community, and through all of Middletown. Daneman was one of the first people to volunteer right away. Several other people Crupi knew also volunteered, but they were not a match.

And Daneman has a beautiful reason for why he volunteered:

"When I heard she was looking for a kidney donor, I thought about it for one day, honestly," he said. "Her two children are in my computer science classes. I lost my mom when I was 5 years old (to cancer) and Lauren has a daughter who is 5. My first immediate thought was: These kids can't lose their mom."

All of Daneman's bloodwork showed that he would be a positive match. The transplant surgery was done June 1 at New York Presbyterian.

Daneman recovered pretty quickly, but Crupi took more time, she said. She spent the summer recuperating, but both are now back to teaching this September at Saint Leo's.

"I feel amazing now. I am still being closely monitored with my medication and bloodwork, but everything is looking great" said the mom of two, ages 7 and 5. "I feel like a brand-new person. It is such a gradual decline with this kidney disease that I did not realize how sick I had gotten."

Prior to the advent of organ transplant, she would have simply gotten more and more tired, and would have passed away.

Crupi said she thinks the entire thing was "part of God's plan."

"I don't think there were any coincidences. I only switched to teach at Saint Leo's so I could be close to my kids once they started going there. And it turns out my donor was there waiting for me. I think this was God's plan."

Daneman said he "feels great" after donating his kidney, and so far the main lifestyle change is he cannot take non-steroid anti-inflammatories, which include many common medicines such as Advil.

"I do have to protect myself because I only have one kidney. So there goes my NFL career," he joked. "I have no regrets at all. Working with her every day and seeing her be able to continue being the wonderful teacher she is ? it makes it all worth it. And I can see her be there for her kids' events that my mom wasn't able to be at."