Selfless Officer Donates Kidney To 8-Year-Old Boy She Only Just Met

Up until a few months ago, police officer Lindsey Bittorf was a complete stranger to 8-year-old Jackson Arneson.

Bittorf is an officer with the Milton Police Department, and she took her oath to protect and serve her community to another level when she met Arneson. In December, Bittorf came across a post by a mother in Janesville, Wisconsin, who had made a public plea for potential kidney donors for her son Jackson.

His mother, Kristi Goll says Jackson was born with a kidney condition called Posterior Urethral Valves and his family always knew that one day he would need a transplant. After years of testing, the family realized that none of his friends or family was a match and that’s when she turned to social media.

“I always knew these days would come, it’s just so hard when they are here. I have reached out before, I am just trying again to see if we can find anyone out there that would be interested in being tested,” Goll wrote on Facebook. “This would be the very best gift we could receive.”

Bittorf told ABC News, she was moved by the mother’s post, and was compelled to get tested to see if she was a match. “I’m pretty set in my ways, so if I set my mind to something, there’s really not talking me out of doing this. I was doing it,” Bittorf told ABC News affiliate WISN.

Bittorf passed the initial health test and learned she shared the same blood type as Jackson and they matched three antigens, which was more than enough to proceed with a kidney transplant.

Bittorf said doctors were shocked that a complete stranger was a match for Jackson and she told WISN, “This is seriously, like, meant to be.” So, just last week, Officer Bittorf surprised Jackson and his family at their home with the good news and Bittorf told the boy, “I took an oath to serve and protect our community, and now my kidney’s going to serve and protect you.”

Jackson and Bittorf went through with the successful transplant on June 22.