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DeKalb principal works to improve school while fighting for her life

Columbia High School principal, Dr. Derrica Davis, has made strides with her students and team, but needs a new kidney.
Credit: WXIA

Any given day, you can find Dr. Derrica Davis marshaling the more than 900 students of Columbia High School.

"They call me the principal, and so some days I am. Some days I'm mom, some days I'm auntie," said Davis. "It just depends on what that child needs for that particular day."

The job demands long hours, but so does the task that goes beyond the workday, staying alive and well.

"It's taxing. I'm exhausted by the end of each and every day," she said. 

At 22, Doctors diagnosed Davis with polycystic kidney disease, a condition in which clusters of cysts develop on the kidneys. At first, she still retained 90 percent of her kidney function, but after the birth of her son and with time, it has dropped to less than 10 percent.

"I still have to pull it together, because I put it all in here, and then I still have to get it together because I have a 10-year-old at home and I have a husband at home," said Davis. "So, I have other things that I've got to do, and life still happens."

Every night, she spends eight hours doing at home dialysis, with other treatments once a month, but what she really needs is a new kidney.

"I know I need it to live, but I also know you have to give it to me, and I know that will impact your life," explained Davis. "It's a very difficult conversation, because besides saying thank you, there's nothing else you can give and for a person who needs the organ thank you just isn't enough."

For nearly five years, Davis has waited on a transplant, but even that hasn't come without challenges. She says a high antibodies issue has made finding a match more difficult.

Credit: WXIA

"The prediction is only one percent of the human population will match me, and so that gives me a very small window of finding a donor," said Davis.

Still, each and every day Davis is at Columbia High School, where her students and school need her, and she's learned, she needs them too.

"The students pretty much know that Dr. Davis needs a kidney. They don't give me any slack," she said with a laugh.

The school has joined Davis at community events, and sold "A Kidney for Derrica" shirts to raise money for organizations, rallying together to show support.

"We're like family. We are the best, I think we have the best team in the DeKalb County Schools," said Davis. "They work extra hard to make sure that I am okay, and by making sure that I'm okay the building is okay, and the kids are okay."

The kids are doing just fine. Since taking over as principal just three years ago, the school has moved from a one star to two star school, with the graduation rates on the rise, making it that much more important to Davis to stick around for her family, her friends, and her life's work of educating the next generation.

"I get satisfaction in knowing that there's been one life each day and I have impacted."

Davis is being treated by Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.

According to the hospital, nearly 100,000 Americans, like Davis, are waiting on a kidney right now, but statistics show 13 people die each day while waiting. 

This year, only 19,000 of those in need of a kidney will get one, and a third will come from living donors.

Find out more about becoming a living donor on their website.

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