A cardiac step down nurse at the UConn Health Center is preparing to save another life. Michelle Voisine is donating a kidney to her 19-year-old son, Tyler.

Last August, as the UConn sophomore was getting ready to move into his residence hall in Storrs, he went for a routine physical.

“He was found to be severely anemic, quite unusual for a then-18-year-old,” Michelle Voisine says.

A chemistry panel found elevated kidney functions. A renal ultrasound followed, and delivered shocking results.

“We were told Tyler has end-stage renal disease, irreversible, and no known cause,” his mom says. “He would need a dialysis catheter right away. That evening while we were having his going-away party for college, we got a call from the covering nephrology doctor. Tyler’s labs were worse and he needed to be hospitalized that night.”

A week later he started treatment at the UConn Dialysis Center. College would have to wait.

In November, Tyler’s name was added to the waiting list for a kidney transplant. By January, with some accommodations, he was back in school. Not long after that, his mother started the process to learn whether she could donate one of her kidneys.

“We found out we are matched well, and that I can be his donor,” she says.

The surgery is set for June 15, at the Health Center.