From Washington Times, By Douglas Ernst
One of the Seven Army Values is selfless service. A soldier from Pennsylvania took it to the next level by offering his kidney to a fellow medic.
Sgt. Joseph Love came to the aid of Sgt. Daniel “Pops” Famous when the Fort Indiantown Gap Army post soldier found out that Sgt. Famous’s polycystic kidney disease had taken a turn for the worse.
“I got all my medics together at the end of one drill and told them that they need to pick up their game because I was not going to be deploying with them,” Sgt. Love told a local station.
It was at that point that Sgt. Love began a monthslong series of tests to see if his kidneys were a match for his comrade.
“We all cared about Pops, about Sergeant Famous. He’s someone we respect and admire very much,” he told the station.
When Sgt. Love found out in August that he was a match, he broke the news to Sgt. Famous.
“I said, ‘Oh by the way, for the last five months I’ve been going through this testing process and I’m a match for your kidney. So, if you want it, it’s yours,’ and he was at loss for words, which he never is,” the local station reported.
Sgt. Famous is scheduled to undergo surgery before month is out.
“I was just thinking about how selfless and how wonderful of a gift this was for one person to give another person. He’s basically given me the gift of life,” he said.
From PerthNow News, Perth, Australia, by ELISA BLACK
A KIDNEY transplant recipient about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her surgery has called for organ donation to become mandatory.
Kathryn Cronin, 56, received a kidney in 1984 because of her polycystic kidney disease.
She was told at the time her kidney may last her five years - ten if she was lucky.
But in the almost 30 years since she was given the kidney, she has travelled the world, married, and given birth to son, Daniel, the child she calls “a miracle”.
Post-surgical medication meant Mrs Cronin was highly unlikely to conceive on her own. Multiple IVF attempts, including the use of donor eggs, failed, and she was told the only option left was adoption.
Six weeks later she fell pregnant naturally.
At the time, Mrs Cronin was one of the first women to give birth after a kidney transplant.
Today, more than 500 Australian and New Zealand women have given birth after a kidney transplant.
In 2012, there were 845 kidney transplants in Australia — 88 of those were in SA.
“If I hadn’t received my transplant I wouldn’t have had a second chance at life,’’ she said.
“The joy of marriage, of travelling overseas, the joy of having my son. None of that would have happened without my transplant.”
DonateLife Week begins on Monday, with a rose-planting ceremony at Bonython Park to remember donors, and Mrs Cronin is eager for the public to understand that people can have a normal life after receiving a transplant, and that mandatory donations would be a way to ensure many more people received the lifesaving organs they so desperately need.
“I am forever thankful to the family that made the decision to give me their loved one’s kidney,’’ she said.
“Being a mum is what I always wanted to be and I am now a registered organ donor as well. I can’t donate my kidneys, but I can give everything else. By donating organs you are not just helping one person, it can help 11, 12 people to have a better life.”
Donate Life SA state medical director Dr Sally Tideman said the five-year survival rates for kidney transplant today were at 93 to 95 per cent and data published by the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry shows that the longest surviving kidney donor recipient to date has lived for 43 years since their surgery.
The Rose Planting Ceremony will be held at Bonython Park’s Gift of Life garden at 10am.
PKD Info
From PKD Foundation, Webinar
Thursday, March 27, 2014, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. CDT
Presented by PKD Patients
Do you have questions about renal replacement? Is your physician telling you it is time to prepare for dialysis or transplant? If you answer yes to these questions, our latest webinars may help you be your best advocate as you enter the conversation about renal replacement with your health care team.
PKD Fundraising
From Charlotte Observer, By Reid Creager, Correspondent
Bad beards put to good use
Gaston Day School’s Facial Hair February is that rare chance for teachers and administrators to raise money for a good cause while lowering their standards for personal grooming.
In the spirit of playoff beards – those wince-worthy wild whiskers worn by professional athletes – the school’s informal competition is one in which the best and worst beard is one and the same. Or at least that’s what students’ donations seem to be saying.
“The uglier the beard, the more money you raise, in my opinion,” says GDS high school principal Greg Rainey, returning to the event this year as one of 10 contestants. “The less you sculpt it, the less you shape it, the more money.”
Rainey, a regular since the event started in 2008, speaks from experience. Social Studies chair John Nussbaumer speaks as last year’s champion.
“My beard tends to come in kind of ugly, kind of a reddish-blonde,” he says. “It’s not the most appealing thing in the world, but the kids like it. I purposely do not grow a beard any other time of year.”
Nor does the 44-year-old Rainey: “Some people really enjoy their beards. Mine feels like Velcro. … It tends to hold food and other tissue-type items. It’s not my favorite thing to grow on my face – and I’m getting old, so there’s gray on the chin.”
Whether they’re occasional or full-time beard wearers, participants enjoy the camaraderie with students and helping the community. Head of School Anderson Davis Warlick says all proceeds from the contest, which contributes to a different charitable organization each year, will benefit the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation to help support one of the school’s students, who is fighting the illness.
Warlick participated in 2013 but is sitting out this year. “I volunteered,” he says. “I actually raised a lot of money because people felt sorry for me last year. But I think they probably wanted to go with younger teachers, who kids will get excited about.”
Eight-by-10 pictures of Rainey, Nussbaumer, Troy Carter, Wesley Cox, Casey Field, Marc Gray, Greg Lekavich, Trent McAllister, Dylan Phillips and Ben Tipton appear on a wall in the school’s student commons area and are updated each week with a close-up of the teacher’s beard. Middle and upper school students and parents can contribute cash, loose change and checks in jars beneath the respective photos.
All participants shave when February ends, with the winner expected to be announced during the school’s community homeroom the first Monday of March. [Read more]
PKD Treatments
From PRWeb, Press Release - audio message
Kidney Disease Solution Review | Learn How to Treat Kidney Diseases Naturally – HealthReviewCenter
Kidney Disease Solution designed by Duncan Capicchiano is the latest program that covers a list of natural and safe remedies to treat kidney diseases. A full review on the site HealthReviewCenter.com indicates if Kidney Disease Solution is worth buying.
Kidney Disease Solution is the latest program that covers a list of natural and safe remedies to treatkidney diseases such as sarcoidosis renal disease, lupus kidney disease and polycystic kidney disease, and healthy diet plans to prevent the recurrence of these diseases. This program is made by Duncan Capicchiano, a full member of the ANMS (Australian Natural Medicine Society) and fully qualified naturopath who is specializing in nutrition, [Read more]
Kidney News
From ChemistryWorld, by Rowan Frame
Scientists in Japan have developed a nanofibre mesh that can adsorb creatinine from blood with the hope that it can eventually be developed into a wearable blood-cleaning device for patients with kidney failure.
Kidney failure causes dangerous concentrations of waste products, such as potassium, urea and creatinine, to build-up in the body. Apart from having a kidney transplant, the next best solution for patients is dialysis. Dialysis, however, is far from ideal. It is time-consuming and relies on access to specialist equipment, clean water, electricity, dialysate, and, usually, a hospital. Often these requirements aren’t accessible in rural parts of developing countries and disaster areas.
Dialysis works according to the principles of diffusion, but Mitsuhiro Ebara and his team at the National Institute of Materials Science in Ibaraki have taken a different approach and developed a material that cleans blood by adsorption.
Zeolites are adsorbent minerals commonly used in water purification technologies. Different zeolites have different pore sizes meaning they can be used to selectively adsorb specific solutes. Ebara’s group trapped a zeolite into a composite mesh by electrospinning it with the biocompatible polymer, poly(ethylene-co-vinylalcohol) (EVOH), to prevent the zeolite from being released into the bloodstream. They then tested the ability of the composite mesh to adsorb creatinine from solution. The team had worried that the properties of EVOH would disable the adsorption properties of the zeolite, but instead they found the adsorption capacity of the mesh was 67% of the free zeolites.
The greatest challenge was precisely controlling the crystallinity of the polymer-zeolite fibers so that they were both insoluble and hydrophilic, says Ebara. ‘The fibers have to be hydrophilic so that the uremic toxin could access the embedded zeolites, but hydrophilic fibers are not stable in water.’
Ebara’s team calculated that a 16g mesh is enough to remove all the creatinine produced in one day by the human body. They are now designing a wrist-watch sized device that can be connected to the shunt that hemodialysis patients generally have inserted under their skin, as a more accessible and cheap alternative to dialysis treatment. [Read more]
From Kansas City Star, Associated Press
U-M gets $8.5 million for kidney data collection
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The federal government has awarded an $8.5 million, five-year contract to the University of Michigan's Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center to coordinate the United States Renal Data System.
The national data system collects, analyzes and distributes information about patients with chronic kidney disease.
The university announced the contract Thursday, saying that about 13 percent of Americans have chronic kidney disease. It says that each year, 100,000 Americans develop end-stage kidney disease that requires dialysis or a kidney transplant.
The coordinating center works with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide a range of data services.
The coordinating center works with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide a range of data services.
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