Oklahoma teen awaiting kidney transplant is happy to be back in classroom

NewsOK | Bryan Painter


Jennifer Ochoa looks at some of her artwork while getting a dialysis treatment at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center. Photo by David McDaniel, The Oklahoman

Her bedroom, from headboard to pictures to stuffed toys, is decorated with about 300 angels.

Whether using regular pencils or colored pencils, she loves to draw. She says it relaxes her.

And for Jennifer, school falls in that “you don't miss it until it is gone” category. Last year it was gone from her daily routine. But as of a few weeks ago, it is back.

She's a freshman at Capitol Hill High School taking core classes in the classroom two full days and three half-days a week. What about the other half-days? This week she's scheduled to begin taking courses such as geography, Oklahoma history and digital art online while she's receiving dialysis treatment in the dialysis unit at The Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center.

Jennifer never was sick. She hadn't been in a hospital since her birth in August 1996, her mother, Patricia Ochoa, said. But then, in August 2009, Jennifer had flu-like symptoms. That's what most everyone assumed it was at first.

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