Kidney Transplant

The opera singer who eventually became Dr. Robert A. Montgomery's wife would never have taken him for a kidney transplant surgeon the first time she saw him, not with the long hair and that outrageous mustache. Maybe a biker, she figured, and maybe she was onto something there. When he heads for work at Johns Hopkins Hospital from his loft in Fells Point or the manse he shares in Bethesda with Denyce Graves, the internationally known mezzo soprano, Montgomery roars off in his 500-horsepower Shelby Cobra, painted white with a blue stripe down the center.

It all started when a Virginia man read his church bulletin one Sunday. A woman from his parish, someone he had never met, needed a kidney. Thomas F. Koontz, grateful that God had recently saved his teenage daughter from brain cancer, offered her one of his. When the woman found a more suitable donor, the 54-year-old retired Marine called Johns Hopkins Hospital. Was there someone else, he wondered, who might need his kidney? Koontz's selfless act started a chain of events that would allow not just one person to get a desperately needed kidney but eight people to get new organs to keep them alive and thriving.

Robert Imes, a painter and mechanic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, had been too sick to work for nearly a year. When he came back, he ran into Pamela Paulk, the hospital's vice president for human resources, outside her office. "I said, 'Robert, I really missed you. Is there anything I can do for you?' " she recalls. "He said, 'I need a kidney.' And I said, 'You can have mine.' " Turns out, she meant it - and she has been sharing the entire experience, blogging about the days leading up to the June 22 surgery and the days since (www.

It never crossed LaKebra Clark's mind that she'd donate one of her kidneys, let alone that it would go to her own father. The eldest of three children, Clark had always been close to her dad, Gregory Bryant, 47, a salesman in an auto dealership. A year ago, he became ill with hypertension, and doctors diagnosed kidney disease. Suddenly, it was time to help save his life. On Dec. 30, which happened to be Clark's 27th birthday, her father called and said, " 'I need you to come through for me,' " she recalled.

Joyce D. Smith, a longtime Social Security Administration clerk and a kidney transplant survivor, died Sunday of pneumonia at Mercy Medical Center. The Gardenville resident was 55. Joyce Dorothea Douglass was born in Baltimore and raised in East Baltimore. She was a 1970 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. She was a teacher's aide at Coppin Elementary School before going to work in 1972 as a clerk at Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn. Mrs. Smith, who was working at the SSA when she died, had won numerous citations and awards for her work, including a 30-Year Award.

She knew the words were coming. For a few days shy of 20 years, Charlotte Wolfe had lived with her mother's kidney, transplanted when she was just 9 years old. No matter. She still burst into tears that day in October 2000 when Dr. Edward Kraus put his hands in his lap and leaned in. "Well," he told her, "it's time. We'd better start looking." Looking, that is, for another kidney. Like a growing number of transplant recipients, Wolfe would need a second new kidney - retransplantation, they call it. Kidney transplants have come a long way since the first was performed more than 50 years ago. Today, more than 90 percent of kidney transplant patients are alive a year after surgery and most of those kidneys last a decade or more.

A week before Christmas in 2003, Norman Biondi gave his daughter Emily the greatest gift possible: a new lease on life. He donated a kidney to his ailing daughter, who not only has regained her health but these days is making a name for herself as a competitive athlete. This week, Emily Biondi, 24, is scheduled to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, with her father to participate with Team USA in track and field events at the World Transplant Games. Last year, the Ellicott City native won four medals at the National Transplant Games in Louisville, Ky., but says the world games are "a much bigger deal."

A 38-year-old West Baltimore man pleaded guilty yesterday to robbery with a deadly weapon in the December attack on political activist A. Robert Kaufman, according to the city state's attorney's office. Steven Carr of the 3800 block of Hillsdale Road admitted taking part in the Dec. 6 robbery on the porch of Kaufman's home on North Hilton Street. Carr admitted striking Kaufman in the head with a brick and then taking his wallet. Sentencing is set for Sept. 7, prosecutors said. Kaufman - who has run for a variety of local, state and federal offices on a socialist platform - was also attacked at his home in 2005.

A more complete accounting asked I would like to thank The Sun for Larry Carson's June 14 article "Democrats back off on rezoning change." Howard County's ability to manage growth with the zoning process will affect every county resident and is a very important issue for the upcoming elections. I attended the COPE forum Monday evening, and the forum was both well-run and well-attended. I needed to read Mr. Carson's article very carefully to realize that he was describing the same event that I attended.

After a week when the Ravens welcomed a new hero to their offensive lineup, perhaps this would be a good time to examine the true nature of heroism. Newly acquired quarterback Steve McNair may well lead them to glory, but there is a slight, bookish guy in the Ravens' front office who recently delivered a lesson in real courage - and it never occurred to him to spike the ball in the end zone. Ravens president Dick Cass has been looking a little gimpy lately. He had to be driven to work for a few weeks and he has a rather prominent scar on his abdomen, even though he is - and has been - in perfect health.