Sending a son or daughter off to college is a big moment for any parent. When that 18-year-old has far exceeded her life expectancy, it's profound beyond words.
Tina Hubbard found the words anyway, amid tears. Her daughter Kiley was born with both kidneys failing. Today, the Wall High School graduate begins classes at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
“Over the years, we were told three times to say goodbye to her, that she wasn’t going to make it,” Tina said. “So to go from that to seeing her thrive and make honor roll every year, and go off to the college of her choice and be healthy, it’s just unbelievable. Of course, we owe that all to Donna.”
Donna is Donna Kuchinski, who donated a kidney to Kiley in 2010. She was Kiley’s speech therapist at the time.
“Everyone always commends me for what I did,” Kuchinski said. “But it’s one of my life’s biggest blessings, to be able to watch her thrive the way she does.”
This is not your typical back-to-school story.
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'I saw what they were going through'
Kiley Hubbard is a twin. Her sister Kimberly just began her freshman year at the University of Maryland. When they were in utero, doctors detected problems with Kiley’s kidneys. She was born with one functioning at 5% to 15% of the normal rate, and the other not at all.
By 10 months of age she was on dialysis. At 13 months, doctors tried to transplant a kidney from her father Mark. The procedure failed.
“She was in the operating room for 16 hours and couldn’t get the blood flow to the kidney,” Tina Hubbard said. “It left her with no transplant and my husband without one kidney.”
The fallout, including a critical loss of blood, made it difficult to receive another transplant. Three times per week over a period of years, Kiley traveled to Delaware for dialysis. Enter Kuchinski, who was providing Kiley with in-home instruction as speech therapist with Wall Primary School.
“I saw how this mom and dad were working as hard as they could to keep things as normal as possible for the two girls,” Kuchinski said. “In the meantime, I saw what they were going through to keep her alive. I realized there was more I could do than help her with speech and language skills.”
Age 50 at the time, Kuchinski donated one of her kidneys.
“She gave me a second opportunity at life, and I could never thank her enough,” Kiley said. “I am really grateful for what she did for me.”
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Tina Hubbard still vividly remembers Kiley’s reaction after she woke from the surgery.
“Mom, I don’t get dialysis anymore?” Kiley asked.
“I cried,” Tina said. “I could cry now.”
She did.
Paying it forward
From the start of her post-transplant life, Kiley has paid it forward. Throughout elementary school, Kuchinski would join her at school each March 30 to celebrate her “Kidneyversary” — the anniversary of the transplant. Together, they would tell Kiley’s classmates about her experience.
When Kiley and Kimberly entered Wall High School they became deeply involved with the Donate Life Club, which was formed in memory of former Wall student Luke Bautista. Bautista died in 2016 at age 15 and his organs were donated to save the lives of five strangers.
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“I thought I could use my story and experience to talk to others about how life-changing organ donation is,” Kiley said. “I made that my mission during high school.”
One of her final acts with the club was facilitating the order of “Lily’s Little Life Lessons,” a children’s book about organ donation that will distributed to Wall elementary-school students this year.
For their efforts with the Donate Life Club, Kiley and Kimberly, along with fellow Wall High student Angelina Gabuzda, each received a $1,000 scholarship from the Sharing Network Foundation. The foundation is an arm of the nonprofit NJ Sharing Network, which is responsible for recovering donated organs and tissue in the Garden State.
Kiley plans on majoring in graphics and interactive design at Monmouth and she will volunteer with the NJ Sharing Network when she can. On Sept. 25 she’s teaming up with Donna, who lives in Manasquan, to staff an organ-donation table at Asburyfest in Asbury Park.
“Donna has become part of our family,” Tina Hubbard said. “She just cared about Kiley so much that she took that risk and gave her that gift. It’s something we can never repay her for, but we try to share every (important) moment with her.”
Twelve-and-a-half years after the transplant, another such moment has arrived. Nobody is taking it for granted.
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him atjcarino@gannettnj.com.
