From Nebraska TV, ABC Affiliate, By Lauren Scharf
Her journey to find an organ match is a remarkable one -- after just eight months of dating, Rowland Trampe on a whim checked to see if his kidney would work for his girlfriend Amy Glenn, a lifesaving commitment.
"I knew I was going to have one, I just thought I would be further down the road," explained Glenn.
After months of fighting the discomfort of a hereditary Polycystic kidney disease Glenn knew a transplant was her best option.
"I have cysts on my kidneys and that they basically keep growing to the point that they just shut the kidneys down, and so mine were still functioning a little bit and so it was either go on dialysis now or get a transplant done," she explained.
Glenn was put on the transplant list in July with an estimated two year wait, and then her boyfriend started to learn more about her disease.
"I told her I was going to be a match and then I was kind of joking but when I took the first blood test and they called me and they told me I was about 98 percent perfect match, they said that was pretty good," explained Trampe.
"I thought it was amazing because usually you have to get more than one person tested to even have a match and then they have to be really healthy so it was a miracle really that he was a match, and a perfect match," Glenn said.
Without much hesitation, the date for surgery was set, December 17.
"I wasn't worried about it and to know that it was going to help her have a better quality of life," Trampe said.
"An emotional roller-coaster up and down and then praying the kidney takes. Getting it from a live donor, and luckily everything went really good and smooth for us," described Glenn.
As each day gets better for the couple, Amy wants to emphasize the significance of donors.
"Once you have gone through this you realize how important donors are. And you know, I am very, very, extremely blessed and thankful that things went you know the way they did for myself," said Glenn.
"It's a commitment. It is, but I think it is a worthwhile commitment, I really do. You can put it on your driver's license and I have always been asked that but I have never had done it, but I will now," said Trampe.
"Best Christmas present I could have gotten," said Glenn. [Read more]
As a child, Sara Hendrzak eagerly awaited visits from her older brother, Dan Beck, when he was away at college.
Decades later, Beck, 59, paid Hendrzak a life-changing visit when he traveled from his residence in Hills to Jacksonville, Fla., in December to give her one of his kidneys.
Hendrzak, 49, has polycystic kidney disease, a condition that was causing kidney failure. She was diagnosed with the disease, which is genetic and causes clusters of cysts to develop on the kidneys, at age 17. However, she didn't start showing symptoms until five years ago.
Hendrzak and one other sibling among her six brothers and sisters also has the condition.
She said Beck's decision to donate his kidney was humble, generous and invaluable to her.
"It meant the world to me," Hendrzak said.
Facing a need to begin dialysis treatments if she didn't receive a new kidney, Hendrzak said she experienced severe fatigue in the weeks leading up to her surgery. She said she had little energy for anything but sleep and work at her job as a nurse case manager.
Her kidneys were functioning at just 7 percent of their capacity before the surgery on Dec. 16.
Beck said during the past year, he watched his wife, Jane, receive dialysis treatments for kidney failure caused by diabetes. She died in June at the age of 60.
He said when Hendrzak's need for a kidney first arose, he couldn't donate because he was busy caring for his wife. His other sister, Mary Ann Wagner, stepped up to give her kidney, but she was not eligible to donate.
When Beck learned Wagner was ineligible, and after watching his wife go through dialysis, he made the decision to donate.
"I sure didn't want Sara to have to do that," he said. [Read more]
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in The Northern Star on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014. It's reprinted here with permission from the newspaper staff.
It's not about me; it's all about Kyle!" That is Ricky Anderson's first comment as I came to interview him for this great story. You see, Kyle Athey became Ricky's kidney donor last September — and now Ricky is anxiously waiting to go back to his job at Border States Cooperative in their fertilizer department.
What could be better than the gift of life? That is what Ricky Anderson received from a young man, Kyle Athey, who grew up in the Athey family home as neighbors of the Anderson family in Clinton. This is a "Christmas Story" of two parts — one of the recipient — and one of the donor's.
Ricky was suffering from Polycystic kidney disease, the same disease that took the lives of his mother and grandmother much too soon many years ago. He became involved in HelpHOPELive, a non-profit organization that helps the transplant community, a program through the North Central Kidney Transplant Fund, and as a result, a very successful local benefit was held for Ricky in late March 2014.
Move forward into June — A phone call to the Andersons' home brought some great, almost unbelievable news to Rick and Lori. A call from a young man, Kyle Athey, who had begun the testing as a donor early last winter — a process that only a very few people knew anything about.
Kyle learned about Ricky's disease and that his Mom passed away from it at the young age of 52. That was the first that Kyle thought about looking into the donor program.
Kyle began the testing process and when he found out he was a match, he asked his transplant coordinator, Cherish, at Sanford hospital in Sioux Falls, if he could be the one to let Ricky know about the "match." When he called Kyle asked, "Do you remember me?" "Of course," Rick said, recalling the little fellow who lived in his neighborhood all his life. You see Ricky is 54 and Kyle is 24 years old. [Read more]
From Pilot Mountain News, Walnut Cove, North Carolina, By Reverend Judy Smith
I Am Blessed
What could be better than the gift of life? That is what Ricky Anderson received from a young man, Kyle Athey, who grew up in the Athey family home as neighbors of the Anderson family in Clinton. This is a "Christmas Story" of two parts — one of the recipient — and one of the donor's.
Ricky was suffering from Polycystic kidney disease, the same disease that took the lives of his mother and grandmother much too soon many years ago. He became involved in HelpHOPELive, a non-profit organization that helps the transplant community, a program through the North Central Kidney Transplant Fund, and as a result, a very successful local benefit was held for Ricky in late March 2014.
Move forward into June — A phone call to the Andersons' home brought some great, almost unbelievable news to Rick and Lori. A call from a young man, Kyle Athey, who had begun the testing as a donor early last winter — a process that only a very few people knew anything about.
Kyle learned about Ricky's disease and that his Mom passed away from it at the young age of 52. That was the first that Kyle thought about looking into the donor program.
Kyle began the testing process and when he found out he was a match, he asked his transplant coordinator, Cherish, at Sanford hospital in Sioux Falls, if he could be the one to let Ricky know about the "match." When he called Kyle asked, "Do you remember me?" "Of course," Rick said, recalling the little fellow who lived in his neighborhood all his life. You see Ricky is 54 and Kyle is 24 years old. [Read more]
What I am thankful for:
God has been so good in my life. I had an inherited disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease. I had been on renal (kidney) dialysis for two years from 1998 to 2000. Those two years were very difficult as I had had surgery to remove both my kidneys due to my doctor’s recommendation; the kidneys were quite large and I was on the transplant list.
I met James Smith at a church and we started dating. Both of us had experienced the deaths of our former spouses. We dated one month, November, and got engaged the following month, Dec. 26, 1999. We were contemplating our wedding date. I felt strongly it should be on Friday, Jan. 28, 2000. I didn’t know why, I just knew it had to be that date.
The week before our wedding, Friday, James came to my home and I told him how sick I felt. I had about given up and really did not think I would live until our wedding date. He said “I found you and really don’t want to lose you.” Sunday night at 11 p.m., I received a call from the hospital that they had a kidney for me.
We had a snow storm and snow was on the ground and in the streets. We headed to the hospital in Winston-Salem and crossed railroad tracks not far from my home. I told James we are excited and happy, but, there is a family mourning for their loss of their loved one. We prayed right there in James’s pick-up for that family.
I had to spend the night waiting for the transplant team to evaluate whether I was a candidate to have this kidney. I laid in the hospital bed and James sat the entire night in a straight-back chair next to me. I turned to him and asked, “This is our very first night together, what do you think?” He stated “Not much!” Shortly after, (Monday morning) a member of the transplant team came into my room and said, “It’s a go!” They took me into surgery and everything was a success. [Read more]
From Manchester Evening News, United Kingdom, By Katie Fitzpatrick
Battling grandad is named as Kidney Research UK ambassador
John Roberts needs a kidney transplant in order to overcome polycystic kidney disease. Picture: Joel Goodman
A grandad waiting for a lifesaving kidney transplant has become an ambassador for a leading charity which help people in a similar situation.
John Roberts has a rare and severe form of polycystic kidney disease, which has caused his kidneys to swell to forty times their normal size.
The condition also means his kidneys are working at just nine per cent of their full capacity.
John, 56, hopes to have the larger, left kidney removed this year – the body can function with just one kidney – and he will then be placed on dialysis until a match is found for the remaining organ.
But despite the painful condition, which he has lived with since 1995 and also causes shortness of breath, he remains positive and says he’s looking forward to raising awareness in his new role as an ambassador for Kidney Research UK.
John, who lives with wife Linda in Irlam, will visit patients at local hospitals and community groups to share his story and give advice.
He said: “I am looking forward to the role.
“I’ll be talking to people about kidney disease and Kidney Research UK. I am very honoured to have been asked by Kidney Research and I am very excited about my role.”
A normal kidney should only weigh half a pound but John’s weigh about 19 pounds.
As well as his ambassador role, John is also urging others to sign up to become an organ donor and help the 10,000 people waiting for a transplant in the UK alone.
The former first aid trainer is desperate to see his three grandchildren Sam, six, 10-year-old Jenna and 11-year-old Faye grow up and says he needs the transplant in order to lead a normal life.
He added: “I am feeling very positive. By the end of the year my kidneys could stop working altogether, but I am going to be on dialysis and the left kidney will be replaced with a fully functioning one.” [Read more]
Montreal Chapter Meeting – Getting to Know the PKD Foundation of Canada / Rencontre avec la Fondation Canadienne de la PKR
We're excited to announce our new Chief Scientific Officer, who will be joining the PKD Foundation on Feb. 9, 2014. David Baron, Ph.D., will be leading the Foundation's work in research toward finding treatments and a cure. Baron's background in biomedical sciences and drug development will keep us moving forward with progress in research.
Baron is particularly interested in the Foundation's work as he has PKD, along with several family members. Baron received a kidney transplant in 2009. Also, his main research focus has been the movement of electrolytes and water across normal and abnormal epithelia.
Baron joins us out of retirement from Takeda Global Research and Development (Deerfield, Ill.) in 2013. During his retirement, he traveled and served as a legal and regulatory expert witness in toxicology and pharmacology, which he has done since 1989. Baron was with Takeda since 2001, where he began as their first U.S. Director of Toxicology and most recently was Vice President, Nonclinical Safety and Risk Evaluation for the U.S. and European Union.
Other roles he had prior to Takeda include Senior Science Fellow for Global Toxicology with Pharmacia (Skokie, Ill.), and increasing positions of responsibility with Searle/Monsanto (Skokie), becoming a Monsanto Science Fellow in Metabolism and Safety Evaluation. At Searle, he was head of quantitative light and electron microscopy. He also represented Safety Assessment on drug development teams. Earlier in his career, he was on the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, S.C.).
With an NIH grant, he founded the Core Structure-Function Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology. Baron received his B.A. in Biology and Ph.D. in Anatomy from The University of Chicago. His did his postdoctoral fellowship in pathology and pharmacology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has been a grant reviewer for the National Cancer Institute, given invited seminars and has served on several national scientific boards.
God has been so good in my life. I had an inherited disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease. I had been on renal (kidney) dialysis for two years from 1998 to 2000. Those two years were very difficult as I had had surgery to remove both my kidneys due to my doctor’s recommendation; the kidneys were quite large and I was on the transplant list.
I met James Smith at a church and we started dating. Both of us had experienced the deaths of our former spouses. We dated one month, November, and got engaged the following month, Dec. 26, 1999. We were contemplating our wedding date. I felt strongly it should be on Friday, Jan. 28, 2000. I didn’t know why, I just knew it had to be that date.
The week before our wedding, Friday, James came to my home and I told him how sick I felt. I had about given up and really did not think I would live until our wedding date. He said “I found you and really don’t want to lose you.” Sunday night at 11 p.m., I received a call from the hospital that they had a kidney for me.
We had a snow storm and snow was on the ground and in the streets. We headed to the hospital in Winston-Salem and crossed railroad tracks not far from my home. I told James we are excited and happy, but, there is a family mourning for their loss of their loved one. We prayed right there in James’s pick-up for that family.
I had to spend the night waiting for the transplant team to evaluate whether I was a candidate to have this kidney. I laid in the hospital bed and James sat the entire night in a straight-back chair next to me. I turned to him and asked, “This is our very first night together, what do you think?” He stated “Not much!” Shortly after, (Monday morning) a member of the transplant team came into my room and said, “It’s a go!” They took me into surgery and everything was a success. [Read more]
PKD News
A grandad waiting for a lifesaving kidney transplant has become an ambassador for a leading charity which help people in a similar situation.
John Roberts has a rare and severe form of polycystic kidney disease, which has caused his kidneys to swell to forty times their normal size.
The condition also means his kidneys are working at just nine per cent of their full capacity.
John, 56, hopes to have the larger, left kidney removed this year – the body can function with just one kidney – and he will then be placed on dialysis until a match is found for the remaining organ.
But despite the painful condition, which he has lived with since 1995 and also causes shortness of breath, he remains positive and says he’s looking forward to raising awareness in his new role as an ambassador for Kidney Research UK.
John, who lives with wife Linda in Irlam, will visit patients at local hospitals and community groups to share his story and give advice.
He said: “I am looking forward to the role.
“I’ll be talking to people about kidney disease and Kidney Research UK. I am very honoured to have been asked by Kidney Research and I am very excited about my role.”
A normal kidney should only weigh half a pound but John’s weigh about 19 pounds.
As well as his ambassador role, John is also urging others to sign up to become an organ donor and help the 10,000 people waiting for a transplant in the UK alone.
The former first aid trainer is desperate to see his three grandchildren Sam, six, 10-year-old Jenna and 11-year-old Faye grow up and says he needs the transplant in order to lead a normal life.
He added: “I am feeling very positive. By the end of the year my kidneys could stop working altogether, but I am going to be on dialysis and the left kidney will be replaced with a fully functioning one.” [Read more]
From PKD Foundation of Canada
Meeting Jan 17, 2015, from 2 to 4 PM, Location: Centre Generation Emploi, 7000 Avenue du Parc, Office 414, H3N 1X1
Come join us as the PKD Foundation of Canada’s Executive Director, Jeff Robertson provides the group with an inside look at the Foundation; discussing past, present and future research grants and what is in store for the PKD Foundation of Canada on a national level in the coming years.
We will also take some time to discuss current and future goals for the Montreal Chapter with respect to advocacy, education, support, awareness and fundraising initiatives. This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard and to make the greatest impact in the PKD community, both on a local and national level.
The Centre Generation Emploi is within walking distance from Parc Metro Station – Blue Line.
This presentation is part of an ongoing series of two-hour informational support meetings hosted by the Montreal Chapter of the PKD Foundation of Canada. They are open to the public, free of charge and the venue is wheelchair accessible. Registration is not required. Free onsite parking is available, and the venue is easily accessible from Parc Metro Station.
PKD Foundation Welcomes New Chief Scientific Officer
We will also take some time to discuss current and future goals for the Montreal Chapter with respect to advocacy, education, support, awareness and fundraising initiatives. This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard and to make the greatest impact in the PKD community, both on a local and national level.
The Centre Generation Emploi is within walking distance from Parc Metro Station – Blue Line.
This presentation is part of an ongoing series of two-hour informational support meetings hosted by the Montreal Chapter of the PKD Foundation of Canada. They are open to the public, free of charge and the venue is wheelchair accessible. Registration is not required. Free onsite parking is available, and the venue is easily accessible from Parc Metro Station.
From PKD Foundation
We're excited to announce our new Chief Scientific Officer, who will be joining the PKD Foundation on Feb. 9, 2014. David Baron, Ph.D., will be leading the Foundation's work in research toward finding treatments and a cure. Baron's background in biomedical sciences and drug development will keep us moving forward with progress in research.
Baron is particularly interested in the Foundation's work as he has PKD, along with several family members. Baron received a kidney transplant in 2009. Also, his main research focus has been the movement of electrolytes and water across normal and abnormal epithelia.
Baron joins us out of retirement from Takeda Global Research and Development (Deerfield, Ill.) in 2013. During his retirement, he traveled and served as a legal and regulatory expert witness in toxicology and pharmacology, which he has done since 1989. Baron was with Takeda since 2001, where he began as their first U.S. Director of Toxicology and most recently was Vice President, Nonclinical Safety and Risk Evaluation for the U.S. and European Union.
Other roles he had prior to Takeda include Senior Science Fellow for Global Toxicology with Pharmacia (Skokie, Ill.), and increasing positions of responsibility with Searle/Monsanto (Skokie), becoming a Monsanto Science Fellow in Metabolism and Safety Evaluation. At Searle, he was head of quantitative light and electron microscopy. He also represented Safety Assessment on drug development teams. Earlier in his career, he was on the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, S.C.).
With an NIH grant, he founded the Core Structure-Function Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology. Baron received his B.A. in Biology and Ph.D. in Anatomy from The University of Chicago. His did his postdoctoral fellowship in pathology and pharmacology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has been a grant reviewer for the National Cancer Institute, given invited seminars and has served on several national scientific boards.
No comments:
Post a Comment