17 November 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT)- A Silver Lake woman is now being deemed a lifesaver, and it all came just from scrolling on TikTok. Her acts of kindness changed her, and a now good friend’s, life forever.
Savannah Stallbaumer was on social media one day when she came across a video from University of Oklahoma student Katie Hallum.
“I was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease called IgA nephropathy and I was told that it probably would never progress into kidney failure, but a few months before my 20th birthday, it did,” Hallum said. “So, I was posting these videos as a complete joke, and they ended up garnering the attention of her.”
It was that moment Stallbaumer knew she had to jump into action.
“I really couldn’t get it out of my head,” Stallbaumer said. “I just felt like, “What if I really could’ve helped that person and I just ignored it?”
Stallbaumer made an initial comment on one of Katie’s TikToks asking how to get tested, and then told Katie, “I want to get tested for you.” Stallbaumer was persistent through numerous tests, waiting to see if she would be a match.
“The whole time I was kind of sitting there like, “she’s going to get all the way to this point and get rejected,” Hallum said.
“Katie tried to talk me out of this process so many times,” Stallbaumer said. “Really, once I met her for the first time, I knew that I was going to donate my kidney to her if I was a match because I could not fathom her going without a kidney.”
Stallbaumer found out she was a match, and surprised Hallum in Oklahoma with her parents to tell her the news that she would be getting a new kidney.
The transplant, which took place in August, was successful. The two agree that their friendship was “meant to be”
“We sat down and ate together, and I knew immediately that we would be really good friends even if she couldn’t donate because we clicked very well,” Hallum said. “We talk every day pretty much.”
The two were friends from the start and Stallbaumer is even joining Hallum’s family for Christmas this year.
“It was very natural in the fact that we’re like girls together,” Hallum said. “It feels like it was very natural and meant to be, and I don’t know, there’s something really nice about that.”
“I’m glad people got to see that there’s good things that happen in the world,” Stallbaumer said.