Community Corner

Organ Donor: 'God Just Nudged Me'

An 11-year-old Acworth boy suffering from a cystic disease and facing kidney failure receives a kidney donated by Cartersville resident Tina Jennings.

A flier distributed by desperate parents connected a Cartersville resident who this week became an organ donor and an 11-year-old Acworth boy who was facing kidney failure.

Tina Jennings, a local 48-year-old wife and mother of two, saw at her allergy clinic one of the hundreds of fliers printed about Bryson Dickman's need for a kidney, 11Alive reports.

"It just tells about Bryson, how he has B-positive blood and needs a kidney," Jennings told 11Alive. "I think it was something where God just nudged me and said, 'I think you need to pay attention to this one.'"

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The next day, Jennings saw a church sign that read, "Be an Organ Donor," and decided to begin the six months of testing that Tuesday culminated in transplant surgery.

"Tina is an incredible and amazing woman," Bryson's father, Joe Dickman, told . "We could never repay her for what she has done for our son, and we are forever indebted to her. She is Bryson's hero, and we love her. She is a member of our family now."

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Two days after surgery, Jennings visited Bryson before she left the hospital in good condition, 11Alive reports. The wife of local businessman Parnick Jennings, Tina also is involved in local , business association and other activities. The couple's many charitable efforts include 's annual Duck Derby, for the disadvantaged, and a .

"We all have our gifts, and we all have something we can share," Tina Jennings said of her kidney donation, 11Alive reports. "Everything, just all the way through, has been amazing."

Doctors expect Bryson's new kidney to function properly following a successful transplant, according to the .

Neither of the Acworth boy's parents qualified as a match, as was the case in 2008, when Bryson's sister, Sarah, age 8 at the time, got a kidney from a stranger who also saw a flier, the newspaper reports.


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