“I guess I didn’t realize how big this was. People have been so amazed by this, but it’s just what teachers do,” Holly Allgood told the Mississippi Free Press three days before she was scheduled to go under the knife to help save her student’s life.
Allgood is a preschool special-education teacher at the Tupelo Early Childhood Education Center. On Aug 27, she donated a portion of her liver to her 5-year-old student Bowen Dorr.
Despite Allgood’s humility about the significance of her gift, Bowen’s father Jake Dorr is quick to point out that the act is one of immeasurable sacrifice.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Jake Dorr said. “His life is going to be changed forever. She is literally saving his life. I really can’t even put into words what it means to us.”
The wife and mother of two met the Dorr family when a then 3-year-old Bowen enrolled at the school. Bowen’s mother said in an Instagram post that Allgood became a rock for the family.
“If you know Holly, you know she is salt of the earth. Pure sunshine and joy, willing to listen, and always looking for the positive, hence why I don’t think she’s ever had a bad day in her life,” Jamie Lynn Dorr posted to her Instagram page on Aug. 8.
“From the moment we met, she took this scared, unsure, uncertain mama and continued to remind me that God was writing his story and that even, on the hard days, we were not alone. She has caught so many of my tears, taken my late-night calls, and seen some of our worst days as we shuffled him, struggling, into school,” the post continued. “It’s hard for any mama, but one with special needs, I could only do that because I knew who had him when I walked in those doors, it was Holly.”
Ten days after he was born, Bowen was diagnosed with a rare genetic metabolic disorder. The condition has caused ongoing health issues.
“When he was born, there were 445 people in the country that had it,” Bowen’s father Jake Dorr told WTVA-TV. “He has an enzyme in his liver that does not process protein. He can hardly eat protein.”
Last September, his health started rapidly declining. The next six months consisted of several trips to the hospital. Finally, doctors at the Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh told the Dorrs in February that Bowen would need a liver transplant. After a battery of tests clearing him for surgery, Bowen was placed on the deceased donor list. They encouraged his family to also look for living donors. The family shared the news with family members and Bowen’s teacher, Allgood. She immediately responded.
“He can just have some of my liver,” she told the family.
“We were obviously, very thankful, but we were kind of like, you know, it’s a lot more intense than that. There’s a lot of tests that have to be run,” Jake Dorr told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 26.
Jake Dorr said hundreds of people applied to donate specifically for Bowen, but Allgood was the only one doctors contacted for follow-up testing. She traveled to Pittsburgh, Miss., in July to see if she was a match.
“There were three days worth of doctor’s appointments, meeting with the team, x-rays, CT scans and blood draws,” Allgood said. “I went in July, and then August 1, we found out that I was a match.”
Students and staff at the school donned blue and green on Aug. 27 as the pair underwent surgery. Bowen’s procedure was scheduled to last 12 hours. Allgood’s was expected to take six hours. Bowen spent two weeks in the pediatric ICU, and he and family members remained in Pittsburgh for another 10 weeks for blood draws, tests and scans to make sure the liver is functioning as it should. Allgood left Pittsburgh on Sept. 6 to continue her recovery. Doctors said that the two could need up to three months for both to recover.
“She (made) a massive, massive sacrifice, and it just speaks to how much she loves our son,” Jake Dorr said. “She loves him as a person and as a student, but she would have done this for any of her students. I don’t have any doubt in my mind. Obviously, we have a special bond, but it’s not just us with her. She would have done this for any of her students.”
Allgood says it’s the anatomy of a teacher.
“We build relationships with our students. We just give and give. And I think every teacher would do it,” Allgood said. “I just think teachers just want the best for their students, and we all want to help any way we possibly can.”
Know a Mississippian you believe deserves some public recognition? Nominate them for a potential Person of the Day article at mfp.ms/pod.
