When Schor Middle School seventh-grader Omar Danso started feeling sick in December, his mother was planning to get him checked out, but wasn’t overly concerned. She thought his stomach issues may have been a food allergy or irritable bowel syndrome.

But when he couldn’t stop vomiting over two days, she became alarmed and brought him to an urgent care center. By the following day, Omar was in the emergency room at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick with sky-high blood pressure, and his parents heard the news that shocked them.

Omar was in end-stage renal failure. His kidneys had stopped working.

“I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me. I was not expecting that,” said Jasmin Eversley-Danso, Omar’s mother. “I was shocked, and frankly devastated. I tried to stay out of the room so he didn’t see my reaction.”

Omar needed a transfusion and immediately began dialysis, which filters the blood to do the job his kidneys could no longer do. He spent two weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit hooked up to a hemodialysis machine through a tube in his neck and taking multiple medications to bring his blood pressure down.

Omar is at home now and stable, but his fight continues. And in some ways, it is just beginning.

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Omar, who is 13, needs a kidney transplant. Eversley-Danso is working with Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, home of the No. 1 kidney transplant program in the Northeast, to find a donor and prepare for a transplant. She began going through the process of being tested for donation herself on April 2, which coincidentally was National Living Donor Day.

“We’ve come so far. We just have to get to the transplant,” said Eversley-Danso. “I know the transplant presents its own set of challenges. Judging by the laundry list of tests that I have to go through, and then depending on how many other people can come forward to start that test, that’s going to take a little while.”

A living donor is highly preferable to a deceased one, but potential donors need to go through a battery of tests to see if they are suitable. Not only do they need to match Omar’s O-positive blood type, but they must also be deemed healthy enough that a donation will not put them at risk. The transplant program at Cooperman Barnabas has a separate team of doctors, nurses, and social workers who look out solely for the interests of the donor.

There is also a way to donate, even if someone doesn’t match Omar’s blood type, through a paired donation. The transplant center can match another donor/recipient pair, so that a donor for Omar can give a kidney to a different recipient, and a donor for that recipient can give a kidney that is a match for Omar.

“I don’t have any hesitation about donating, but I do have other children, and I may not be a complete match and may not be able to do what I want to do in my heart,” Eversley-Danso said. “So there may be someone else out there who is a better match for him or can donate on his behalf.”

Anyone interested in finding out about becoming a living donor can confidentially email Cooperman Barnabas at cbmclivingdonor@rwibh.org or call 973-322-5346, or complete a donor questionnaire at cbmclivingdonor.org. Calling for information or completing a donor questionnaire carries no obligation to donate.

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To raise awareness of Omar’s brave fight and about organ donation in general, the Danso family is hosting a Day of Fun on Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Riverside Park in Piscataway, which will feature a 5K fun run and walk.

“We really just want to have a day to celebrate how far we’ve come with him and do some walking and running around the park,” said Eversley-Danso, who credits Schor Middle School counselor Nancy Arvizzigno and Piscataway Township Recreation Director John Tierney with helping her arrange the Day of Fun.

“There has been a very positive response to the event,” Arvizzigno said. “And students have shared that they miss seeing Omar in class.”

There will also be a DJ and food, and tables with health care information from NJ Sharing Network and Cooperman Barnabas Transplant Center, to spread awareness and dispel myths about organ donation.

“People in the community may not understand the importance of donating organs or having it on their license,” said Eversley-Danso, “and how many lives they can save.”

There will also be stations for blood pressure screenings.

“That is what led us down this road,” Eversley-Danso said. “If we didn’t know his blood pressure was so high, we wouldn’t have known anything else. I’d like to see people be more proactive in their health, and I don’t want to see anyone go through what we went through.”

Omar’s fight has been difficult on his family, but they have also found a new network of support in Piscataway and the organ donation community.

“I’m hanging by a thread, honestly,” said Eversley-Danso, who graduated from Piscataway High School in 2003. “But surprisingly in the past few weeks, I’ve gotten this burst of energy. Maybe because we’re planning this event with his school counselor.

“Yes, this has completely turned our lives, but the more I talk about it with people, I realize this is bigger than just us. So many people are walking around having donated or are the recipient of a donation. Who knew?!”

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While he waits for his transplant and his celebration day, Omar continues to fight like a champion.

“He has been so strong,” said Eversley-Danso said. “I can’t even imagine. When I was 12, I had my tonsils out and you would have thought I was dying. From being a normal 13-year-old, never being sick or hospitalized, to really fighting and telling me, ‘I want to be alive, I want to be here.’

“We do his dialysis every night, and he doesn’t complain about it. We’ve come very far and he has amazed me.”

Omar is using peritoneal dialysis, a gentler form of dialysis for children, that uses the peritoneum, the lining of the abdomen, to remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. He is hooked up each night at home through a catheter in his abdomen, and the machine does its work while he sleeps.

In between his treatments and his medications (now down to two after leaving the hospital on nine medicines), Omar enjoys playing games; cuddling with his dog, a Cavapoo named Peanut; and keeping up with his school work through virtual Zoom lessons.

“Some great teachers from the district have stepped up to help him,” his mother said. “One of them is his science teacher, Mrs. Hester, who during our first session with him, we cried. She loves Omar.”

Kari Hester, Omar’s science teacher at Schor, called him “a person of remarkable strength and resilience.”

“Despite what he’s going through, he continues to demonstrate courage, determination, and a positive attitude,” Hester said. “I am confident that with the support of his family and the community, he will overcome this obstacle and emerge even stronger and healthier than ever before.”

Omar’s illness and absence have greatly impacted the Schor school community, from teachers and staff, to students.

“Omar is a great person; he deserves a kidney,” said classmate Noah Jenkins. “Please, someone out there, from the bottom of your heart, donate Omar a kidney.”