Sophomore year is the year most students will take swimming classes, attend sweet sixteen parties, and start figuring out what they want to do about college. North Penn High School student, Zoey Lussier was excited to start her journey as a sophomore at the high school and continue taking classes at North Montco Technical Career Center. Like any sophomore, she never expected to be spending months in the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) and going through intensive surgery – but in June of 2014, Zoey Lussier’s world was turned upside down when she found out that she had cardiac arrhythmia and renal failure.

“It all happened at once. I didn’t even understand what was happening,” said Lussier, commenting on the day she was rushed to Einstein Medical Center. Zoey explained how, on June 1st, she nervously approached her parents with her hands clamped together and her legs shakier than normal. Fussier had blood work done at Einstein Medical Center before being sent to CHOP for more blood work. She was put into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at CHOP and stayed there for almost the entire summer of 2014.

“I didn’t get out of CHOP until August, so I didn’t have a summer [through] July; I didn’t celebrate Fourth of July. Even in August, it was better, but I couldn’t do anything yet because my catheter wound wasn’t fully healed,” said Fussier.

This turn of events did not stop Lussier from attending school in September. She would often arrive late to school, because it took a while to remove the catheter tube she used while sleeping. Lussier would also leave school early due to tiredness and nausea, and she could not participate in swimming classes, but she did not let her kidney failure keep her away from her sophomore year.

December 15^th, 2014 was Lussier’s last day of school before her kidney transplant surgery. Zoey’s mother, Jennifer Lussier, donated her kidney to her daughter and went into surgery at 6 a.m. on December 16^th at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Zoey Lussier went into surgery at CHOP around 7:30 a.m. the same day. The surgery was originally scheduled for December 9^th, but was pushed back when Lussier’s mother came down with a cold.

Both procedures were a success. Lussier was released from CHOP the week of Christmas, but was not allowed to leave the house and go to family holiday events.

“I was a little nervous, but I trusted the CHOP people. My parents were really nervous because there are things that could go wrong.  Like you could get into the operating room and the kidney might not work in my system, or they could have brought my mom in and said her kidney wouldn’t work and can’t be donated.  There have been times when that has happened,” said Fussier.

“This experience is crazy, but lucky at the same time because there are kids who have been waiting for a transplant for years now, and I got one in the span of ten months,” said Lussier.

Fussier is healthy and came back to school on February 2^nd. She is continuing her EMT classes at North Montco Technical Career Center and hoping one day to help other kids who are going through what she has experienced.