Sydney Page
Shawn Moyer’s high school prom date bailed on him. Although it stung at the time, he’s now grateful she did.
“A week before prom, she had gotten a better offer,” said Moyer, now 55.
He ended up asking Elena Hershey - who was a year younger and in his brother’s class at Dallastown Area High School in York County, Pennsylvania - to be his date. To his delight, she said yes.
He had no idea, then, that 37 years later, his fill-in prom date would be the reason he received a life-saving kidney donation.
“I lucked out,” Moyer said from his home in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.
After Moyer - a doctor - graduated from high school in 1988, he lost touch with Hershey, 53, who later moved to Boulder, Colorado, and became a teacher. It wasn’t until December 2023 that Hershey heard through a mutual friend about Moyer’s health challenges. He was on dialysis and needed a kidney.
“I contacted him, and I offered him my kidney,” said Hershey, explaining that she became interested in kidney donation about two years ago, and researched it extensively. “I realized at some point that it was no longer a question of if I would donate a kidney, it was when I would donate a kidney.”
Moyer seemed like the right recipient, Hershey said, noting that she had been approved as a kidney donor in the summer of 2023.
“If a couple weeks of downtime and a little bit of discomfort is all I need to do to extend someone’s life, it’s just such an easy decision to make,” she said.
Moyer was stunned to hear from his prom date after so many years - and baffled by her unexpected offer.
“I was flabbergasted,” he said.
The two connected for a call, and Hershey learned that Moyer had already had two kidney transplants in his life - one at age 16, and another 20 years ago.
When he was a teen, Moyer said, he had an infection that led his body to reject his kidneys. Since donor kidneys only last between 8 to 20 years (a kidney transplant from a living donor typically lasts longer than a kidney from a deceased donor), Moyer was due for a new kidney.
“My renal function just continued to get worse, and about 20 months ago, I ended up on dialysis,” Moyer said, adding that he was going to be added to a transplant list for a cadaver’s kidney. The wait time, he said, was seven to 10 years.
While Moyer was hopeful when Hershey reached out, he knew the odds of her being a match were slim. Moyer has type O blood, and it can be challenging to find a compatible kidney because the donor must also be type O.
As Moyer suspected, Hershey was not a match for him. But there was something else she could do to help her high school prom date.
The National Kidney Registry has a paired exchange program, meaning a donor can give a voucher to a recipient who will then be prioritized to receive a living donor kidney.
“There’s different ways to donate,” said Sarah Ashton Brantley, a registered nurse and transplant coordinator at AdventHealth Porter in Denver. “The way that Elena donated is through something called a standard voucher … Instead of donating directly to your recipient, you donate to someone else, then you list your intended recipient on a voucher.”
Following the donation, “the recipient’s voucher gets activated in the system for a living donor,” she said.
Moyer’s wife did a similar paired exchange 20 years ago, as she was not a compatible match for him. Rather than waiting seven to 10 years for a cadaver’s kidney, if Hershey donated her kidney to a stranger and gave her voucher to Moyer, he would be able to get a kidney from a live donor within a year.
Hershey loved the idea, and the fact that she’d be able to help two people in the process.
“It’s kind of like planting two trees with one seed,” she said.
Hershey had a nephrectomy on July 3 at AdventHealth Porter, and donated her kidney to an anonymous recipient. Within two weeks, Hershey said, she was exercising again.
“I haven’t found a downside to donating,” Hershey said. “If it’s something I can do that I have extra of, why wouldn’t I want to help somebody?”
“If anything, my quality of life has improved,” she added, explaining that being a donor has been immensely fulfilling.
While Hershey recovered from the operation, Moyer and his wife sent her flowers and checked in regularly.
“She’s just an amazingly generous person,” Moyer said of Hershey, with whom he reunited in-person about a week before her surgery. “She was very serious about trying to help somebody else, which you don’t hear about every day.”
After months of waiting, Moyer got the much-anticipated call on Feb. 13 from his transplant clinic that a kidney from an anonymous living donor was available. His surgery was Feb. 20 at UPMC Harrisburg.
“Because of Elena’s generosity and willingness to do that … I ended up with a match that was exceptional,” Moyer said.
When he got the good news, Hershey was the first person he called.
“I got really emotional, because it’s coming full-circle and the system really works,” Hersey said. “This is such a rewarding feeling, to go through that with him.”
Moyer’s surgery went well, and he’s now recovering at home. He and Hershey are regularly in touch. They both said they’re bonded for life.
“This was an easy surgery, it was an easy recovery … it costs nothing to donate; the recipient’s insurance covers everything,” Hershey said. “I would do it again if I had another extra kidney.”
Hershey hopes their story inspires people to consider organ donation - or other ways of supporting those who could use help.
“Each of us can contribute small acts of compassion that can create profound ripple effects,” she said.
In the end, Moyer said, his high school prom date’s decision to bail might have been one of the best things to ever happen to him.
“You never know, do you?” Moyer said.