Kidney

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

Dialysis is a lifesaving treatment for those with kidney disorders. But during emergencies, particularly bad weather, sometimes patients don't want to go — or can't get to — their usual dialysis center. There are some steps patients can take to prepare, says Brandon Eck at the DaVita dialysis centers, who volunteers with the company's emergency response team, DaVERT. What is dialysis and why it so important? Dialysis is a life-sustaining therapy for patients whose kidneys no longer function properly.

When 10-year-old Sean Menard's battle with kidney disease took a turn for the worse, his former kindergarten teacher's aide offered him one of her kidneys. When it turned out she was not a good match, her husband volunteered. His act of kindness not only enabled Sean to get the kidney he desperately needed, but it became a vital link in a chain of four donors who would give their healthy kidneys to four people in need of new organs. The University of Maryland Medical Center announced the series of donations Tuesday, which marked its first kidney exchange.

When the Super Bowl ends Sunday, win or lose, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is likely to exchange texts with one man. When Brady was 12, he met Tom Martinez at a football camp at the College of San Mateo in California and has sought the coach's assessment of his performance after every game in his career. But in December, the conversation turned from the NFL star's skills to Martinez's health, after Brady learned that Martinez was struggling on dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Joy Hindle cried when she found out she couldn't give one of her kidneys to her twin brother. Then doctors gave the Bel Air woman another option: a kidney exchange, in which she would donate her kidney to a patient who needed one, and her diabetic brother would get one from another willing donor. Hindle and brother Paul McSorley were two of six participants in a triple kidney transplant performed last month by doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She gave her kidney to a stranger; he got a kidney from a stranger.

For months, Valerie Eigner saw her daughter, Jamie Conway, endure exhausting dialysis treatments three days a week, on top of a full-time work schedule that sometimes left her so fatigued she would return from her job and collapse on her bed. The lupus first diagnosed in 2004 had spread to Conway's kidneys, and doctors knew by spring that she would need a transplant. When Eigner heard the news, there was no question of what she would do to help. "When we found out in April that she needs a kidney, I knew I'm going to be tested," said Eigner.

At 71, with more than two years of a punishing schedule of dialysis under his belt, William Kavadias thought a new kidney would never come. Transplants, he assumed, were for the young. But last year, Kavadias' life-saving chance came in an unlikely package - a kidney from an older donor became available. The transplant was successful, and today he's feeling great. It's the kind of surgery that many surgeons won't bother to perform. While kidneys from older donors are not suitable for younger patients, they can save seniors' lives, say some transplant surgeons.

ANNAPOLIS -- The poorest Marylanders with kidney disease would be treated free, but others needing treatment would pay part of the cost under a bill passed yesterday by the House of Delegates.The bill would impose a charge on those who make more than $11,000a year or whose assets exceed $12,500.Those patients would pay 5 percent income or assets above these figures for dialysis treat- ments.The legislation seeks to provide coverage free or at low cost for the neediest of 4,200 Marylanders now participating in the program, said Delegate Brian K. McHale, D-Baltimore, a member of the House Environmental Matters Committee, which crafted the bill.

Of course the five-kidney, 10-patient transplant extravaganza at Johns Hopkins Hospital got on the CBS Evening News last month. A dozen surgeons worked all day to fulfill a complex, "my relative will give you a kidney if your relative gives me a kidney" contract that pushed the bounds of clinical logistics. "A huge medical story," said Katie Couric. "A surgical square dance," said CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. A "triumph of the human spirit," transplant director Dr. Robert Montgomery told The Sun. And yet the heroics barely skimmed the ocean of desperate people needing kidneys.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- Word got around after Pedro Riveroli, a poor laborer, sold his kidney to a wealthy merchant, and soon he had other offers. He sold his daughter's kidney to an ailing millionaire and his son-in-law's kidney to a retired teacher.Mr. Riveroli was bargaining away the kidneys of two jobless friends last week when police detained him and 19 others in what may be Latin America's first official crackdown on commerce in human organs.The case, dramatic evidence of the economic desperation reigning across the continent, has set off a debate over the ethics of organ donations in societies plagued by disparities in wealth.

Too much was happening at once. It seemed that years worth of life-altering news — some good, some tragic — was being compressed into a single, unforgettable day. Remarkably, the thread that tied the day's events together was football. It was this past July, and Mark Sobel, a 51-year-old New Jersey orthopedic surgeon and former walk-on Maryland football player, was suffering through the unimaginably sad death of his 17-year-old son. Nearing the end of his life, Mark Sobel Jr. lay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with myocarditis, an infection of the heart.

The National Kidney Foundation of Maryland held its second annual Rappel for Kidney Health event June 18 at the Canton Crossing Tower in Downtown Baltimore's Canton community. People of all ages rappeled down the 17-story building to raise money for the Maryland branch of the foundation. Participants included people with connections to kidney disease, transplant donors and recipients, and adventure seekers. Pictured is Thomas Stranger of Owings Mills, who donated a kidney to his brother-in-law, Michael Mullen, of Severn.

Joy Hindle cried when she found out she couldn't give one of her kidneys to her twin brother. Then doctors gave the Bel Air woman another option: a kidney exchange, in which she would donate her kidney to a patient who needed one, and her diabetic brother would get one from another willing donor. Hindle and brother Paul McSorley were two of six participants in a triple kidney transplant performed last month by doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She gave her kidney to a stranger; he got a kidney from a stranger.

Dr. Jimmy Boyd Zachary, a retired Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center physician who was a pioneer in the study of kidney disease, died of cancer Feb. 15 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 83 and lived in Ruxton. Born and raised in Pontotoc County, Miss., Dr. Zachary earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Mississippi. He received his M.D. at Harvard Medical School and came to Baltimore as an intern and then chief resident at the old Baltimore City Hospitals, now Bayview.

For months, Valerie Eigner saw her daughter, Jamie Conway, endure exhausting dialysis treatments three days a week, on top of a full-time work schedule that sometimes left her so fatigued she would return from her job and collapse on her bed. The lupus first diagnosed in 2004 had spread to Conway's kidneys, and doctors knew by spring that she would need a transplant. When Eigner heard the news, there was no question of what she would do to help. "When we found out in April that she needs a kidney, I knew I'm going to be tested," said Eigner.

Clinton B. McCracken wants to go home to Canada. His attorney wants him to as well. So does his father. And so does the United States government. But the 33-year-old former drug researcher-turned-drug user who made headlines when his fiancee died after a drug-shooting session is stuck in a federal holding pen in York, Pa. What McCracken wants is to donate a kidney to his ailing father in Alberta. He may already be too late, and because he's been held in detention longer than 72 hours, he could be ineligible as a donor (due to risk of disease)

LAUREL -- After 25 years of suffering from diabetes, and after operations on both his eyes and both his feet, Jack Salter was given this grim choice by his doctors a few months ago: He could undergo a kidney transplant, or he could die within 90 days.Salter, 61, trains horses at Laurel racetrack. He's been doing it for 40 years. When he went to work a few days after his doctor's pronouncement, he bumped into Karen Young, who's a mutuel teller at the track. They've known each other for a couple of years, the way folks do who work at the same place and make small talk when they see each other.

While a stream of doctors and nurses swirled around her hospital bedThursday, 14-year-old Melanie Boore longed for one thing -- homework.Lots of it, especially math and science -- anything other than being stranded in a hospital bed and connected to an IV for days on end.A longing for schoolwork is unusual in the typical 14-year-old. But then Melanie, a Westminster resident and East Middle School eighth-grader, is far from typical.On Monday, Melanie, who has been hampered by kidney problems since birth, received a healthy kidney that was taken from her father, Michael.

Eagerness to spread the word about kidney disease is enough to drive local residents up a wall — or down a tower. On June 19, some will take to the side of the 24-story Legg Mason Tower in Harbor East, then rappel down one of Baltimore's most prominent skyscrapers as part of a fundraising approach by the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland. Rappel for Kidney Health is designed to raise awareness about a disease that affects one in nine Marylanders. Each participant must raise at least $1,000 in advance.