LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Tech University Professor Jeff Hanson is back to square one in his search for a kidney donor, after a promising match was denied at the final step.<\/p>\n
Hanson, a mechanical engineering professor known for his millions of YouTube views<\/a> and close relationships with students, already had more than 50 current and former students signed up to donate a kidney when his story was first shared in September<\/a>. Since then, that number has grown to 100.<\/p>\n Former student Jennifer Cox was among the first to volunteer. Cox, now a senior engineering manager at Boeing in Washington state, says Hanson was one of the first people who believed in her dream.<\/p>\n \u201cI would be at Boeing in the Pacific Northwest building airplanes. I mean, there\u2019s nothing I can think of cooler than that. He goes, so why the hell don\u2019t you do it?\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that there is a mentor in my life that I have that\u2019s more critical than him. Most people around me told me I couldn\u2019t do this. And when I say most, I mean all. And he was always in my corner.\u201d<\/p>\n Cox started the journey to hopefully become Hanson\u2019s donor from Washington, from paperwork to bloodwork and more. She made it to the final step of the process, going before a board for approval. But the night before the vote, she received a call that a surgeon found something in one of her scans that disqualified her as a match.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s when she got denied, there at the very last step. So, it just crushed her. And me, too,\u201d Hanson said.<\/p>\n Cox said the news was devastating after coming so close to helping her former professor.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were this close. And now he\u2019s got to start over. And that scares me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hanson was told to start recruiting donors again. He needs someone with A positive or O blood type.<\/p>\n Students continue to support Hanson in other ways. One student\u2019s parents offered their home for his recovery, with two extra bedrooms close to the hospital. Another student started a GoFundMe to help cover costs.<\/p>\n Student Avery Pickrell is working to fundraise with local businesses after hearing about Hanson\u2019s journey on social media. Inspired by a friend\u2019s journey, Pickrell started her own advocacy group on campus, Student Organ Donation Advocates.<\/p>\n \u201cThe West Texas and Red Raider community, it\u2019s been really, really cool to see how we can really all come together as a unit and as a group and as a team to help someone,\u201d Pickrell said.<\/p>\n Despite his health challenges, Hanson continues pouring all he has into his students, looking forward to his future.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll die with a marker in my hand one day,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be alright, I\u2019ve got big angels that are watching after me, they\u2019re working overtime.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanson remains humbled and hopeful one of his students could become the person who saves his life.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, that is the most important thing about getting something like this, is the bond that you\u2019re going to form with that person,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cThey\u2019re saving your life, so, you\u2019re going to be really close to that person.\u201d<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Tech University Professor Jeff Hanson is back to square one in his search…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64399,20365,64404,6672,21736,7990,64396,11349,64392,11394,34479,36752,64398,64403,25631,168,170,169,26791,64400,64397,31576,1929,64402,64393,8094,64394,64395,302,27,45722,64401,512],"class_list":["post-156405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-a-positive","tag-after","tag-avery-pickrell","tag-beloved","tag-blood","tag-brittany-crittenden","tag-denial","tag-donation","tag-donor","tag-engineering","tag-falls","tag-final","tag-jeff-hanson","tag-jennifer-cox","tag-kidney","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-match","tag-o","tag-organ","tag-over","tag-professor","tag-promising","tag-restarts","tag-search","tag-starts","tag-step","tag-tech","tag-texas","tag-through","tag-type","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}