ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- On Oct. 21, just five days before his 36th birthday, Jeff Hammond was about to embark on a journey that would change not one, but two lives forever.
The Rocky River educator is now recovering from donating one of his kidneys -- not directly to his cousin, Nicole Harnish, whose 26-year battle with kidney disease had profoundly shaped his life -- but to a stranger in Florida as part of a program that will give new life to them both.
It was the culmination of a journey originating when Hammond was just a high school student watching his younger cousin fight for her life.
That experience would come to define not only his decision to donate, but the path his career would take.
Harnish, 10 years younger than Hammond, was born with kidney failure that required a transplant when she was still a baby.
Her mother was her first donor, and that kidney lasted nearly 19 years.
“She spent her entire life in and out of UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital with infections, dialysis and kidney issues, often spending family members’ birthdays and holidays in the hospital,” Hammond said.
The cousins had a strong bond. Hammond grew up playing sports with Harnish’s brother, who became one of his best friends.
The families were so close that Hammond was asked to be in his cousin’s bridal party when she got married two years ago. He also was chosen to be best man in her brother’s wedding.
“I was treated as if I was one of her older brothers,” he said.
Both of Harnish’s parents were teachers at North Ridgeville City Schools, where Hammond attended middle school and high school.
It was observing their dedication to education that impacted his decision to become an educator.
“They had a massive impact on my life, which influenced me to become an educator,” Hammond said.
Today, he teaches physical education at Goldwood Primary School in Rocky River, carrying forward the legacy of the educators who helped shaped him.
But perhaps the most unexpected influence his cousin would have on his life was yet to come.
When Hammond was a senior in high school, his cousin’s second-grade basketball team needed a coach.
He volunteered, never imagining how that decision would alter the trajectory of his life.
“This was my first taste of coaching at any level,” Hammond recalled.
After graduating from Kent State University, he volunteered again, this time to coach his cousin’s summer softball team alongside her brother.
“As a result of coaching her at a young age, I fell in love with coaching,” Hammond said.
That love has sustained a remarkable coaching career. Hammond has now coached varsity softball for 12 years, varsity girls basketball for 10 years and varsity girls golf for five years.
His cousin later became a middle school and JV softball coach, extending the family’s athletic legacy.
“My life revolves around athletics, which was all sparked by her and her family’s impact on my life,” Hammond said.
In 2019, the family received devastating news: His cousin’s transplanted kidney was failing.
Her siblings weren’t a match, so Hammond immediately got tested through University Hospitals and thus found out he was a match.
They scheduled the surgery for June that year. Hammond rearranged everything in his life to make it happen -- even adjusting his schedule for the “Goldwood Games,” the elementary school’s beloved end-of-year field games that he is instrumental in running.
Then, three weeks before the scheduled surgery, everything changed. His cousin received a kidney from a deceased donor.
It turned out that having a living donor match had moved her up on the deceased donor list -- a policy designed to limit living donations when they can be avoided.
“Any time there is a living donor match, the recipient gets moved up the list on the deceased donor match to try and avoid a living donor surgery,” Hammond explained.
For six years, that kidney served his cousin well. But this year, it too began to fail, along with other medical complications.
When Hammond learned that his cousin needed another transplant, his response was immediate.
“I immediately got tested again and did all the physical and mental evaluations to see if we were a match again,” he said.
The testing was extensive: a 24-hour urine sample collection, EKG, CAT scan, X-rays, kidney ultrasound, DNA matching, skin graft testing and mental health evaluations -- all to determine if he was physically and mentally healthy enough to donate.
This time, however, there was a complication. The antibodies from his cousin’s previous transplant had created new challenges. They were no longer a perfect match.
But Hammond wasn’t about to let that be the end.
Medical staff at University Hospitals offered Hammond an alternative: the National Kidney Registry’s voucher program.
It has been a creative solution to a common problem in living donation.
Under this program, Hammond would donate his kidney to someone else in the United States who matched with him.
The moment his kidney was transplanted into that recipient, his cousin would receive a voucher that immediately moved her to the top of the national kidney transplant list.
Hammond agreed.
Within 20 minutes of being activated on the National Kidney Registry, he had matched with a recipient in Florida.
For Hammond, the decision was never in question.
“There was never a doubt that this was the right decision for me,” he said.
“I had over five years to think about it, and not once did I second guess if I should do it or not.”
The most difficult part, he said, wasn’t the surgery itself or the recovery. It was being away from Goldwood Primary School and missing the start of the Rocky River High School varsity girls basketball season.
“The hardest part has been missing school and not seeing our amazing students we have, as well as missing the start of our varsity girls basketball season,” Hammond said.
“I knew I was healthy and could spare three to six weeks of my life if it meant that my cousin could have a few healthy years.
“I have seen her suffer for 26 years and wanted to provide her the opportunity to live somewhat of a normal life.”
In an almost poetic twist, Hammond’s hospital room at University Hospitals was next to his cousin’s, where she continued to battle illness while awaiting her transplant.
“Being able to see her on my way out of the hospital put everything in perspective and made my pain all worth it, knowing that she, too, will soon be better,” he said.
He said the post-surgical pain only lasted a few weeks -- a small price to pay for potentially giving his cousin many more years of health and normalcy.
Hammond’s message to anyone considering becoming a living organ donor is straightforward.
“If you truly love someone enough, it is all worth it. The post-surgical pain only lasts a few weeks and if you can endure it, it can help take away the pain and suffering that someone has for a lifetime.”
Hammond’s story illustrates how the connections we create through love -- whether through family, teaching, coaching or simply showing up for one another -- can come full circle in the most profound ways.
The little girl he once coached on a second-grade basketball court gave him a sense of purpose that shaped his entire adult life and career.
Now, decades later, he’s given something back: hope, health and priceless time.
As Hammond recovers and prepares to return to his students at Goldwood Primary School and his athletes on the court, his cousin waits at the top of the national transplant list, her voucher secured by his sacrifice.
Two lives will be forever intertwined, both changed by Hammond’s gift -- the gift of life.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list every nine minutes.
There are currently more than 90,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States.
Living donors like Hammond can dramatically reduce wait times for recipients. Living donor kidneys often function better and last longer than kidneys from deceased donors.
Most living donors lead healthy, normal lives with one kidney, as the remaining kidney grows slightly to compensate for the loss.
The National Kidney Registry’s voucher program, which Hammond utilized, has helped facilitate thousands of transplants that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible due to blood type or antibody incompatibilities.
The program allows non-matching living donors to help their intended recipients by donating to compatible strangers, while their loved ones receive priority placement on the national list.
For information about becoming a living donor, visit kidney.org or the National Kidney Registry.
440-202-1706
Service Areas
