Kidney

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.

Man fatally shot trying to disarm a police officer 3 A man was fatally shot last night while attempting to disarm a Southeastern District police officer who was investigating a report of a domestic situation, police said. The officer's name and that of the man were not released. Shortly before 9:15 p.m., the officer was talking to the man in the 2700 block of Orleans St. near Lakewood Avenue when he attacked the officer. Police said at least one area resident called police, telling them that the man had the officer on the ground and was holding her in a head-lock while trying to take her gun. Within minutes, several other officers responded.

The Hyatt Regency Baltimore mezzanine was filled with folks preparing for an evening trip. That's certainly not unusual when you're in a hotel. But this was a journey that wouldn't leave the hotel ballroom. And the "traveling clothes" were black-tie optional. "We're going to take a little walk down Motown Memory Lane," said Christine Snyder. She and husband Larry Snyder were the co-chairs of this, the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland's "23rd Annual Gift of Life Gala," in which several 1960s-era musicians would be performing: The Platters, Charlie Thomas and The Drifters, A Tribute to the Delfonics and Ali Ollie Woodson of The Temptations.

About 10 percent of Americans may at some point develop kidney stones, says Brian R. Matlaga, director of stone disease at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Kidney stones, which are hard masses of crystals that form within the urinary tract, can cause extreme pain as they pass out of the body, infection and, in some cases, can block the ureter. What are kidney stones? Everyone's urine contains some crystals, but a stone occurs when these crystals bind together and aggregate until they achieve a size at which [the mass formed]

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.

Six kidney patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital received new organs from six unrelated living donors Saturday in what the chief surgeon called the nation's first six-way "domino" kidney swap. Nearly 100 medical professionals took part in the transplants, which began simultaneously in different operating rooms. Surgery stretched over 13 hours. All 12 donors and recipients were listed in good condition yesterday, a hospital spokesman said. Some had gone home while others were still recovering in the hospital.

Electric shock is used to start hearts that have stopped beating. In a pinch, would it be possible to start a heart using a stun gun? Doctors use defibrillators to shock a heart out of a life-threatening rhythm. A stun gun is NO substitute for a defibrillator! We consulted two cardiologists who both said this would not work and is a very bad idea. If you are concerned about needing a defibrillator "in a pinch," you can purchase an AED (automated external defibrillator). These home models detect life-threatening heart rhythms and use an electrical shock to restart the heart.

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.

Last year, Landis Expandis felt creatively drained. After about 20 years as the lead singer and drummer for the local funk rock group All Mighty Senators, he was running low on subject matter for lyrics. "I couldn't come up with anything, and the stuff I did come up with was very sophomoric," said Expandis, whose real last name is McCord. "I didn't know anything else to write about." Then came Expandis' bout with pneumonia, which left his kidneys permanently operating at only 10 percent.