Aubrey and Ayden have become best friends
KATHERINE C. COHEN/BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
When the going gets tough, it's nice to have a best friend to lean on.
Ayden Mosher, 3, and his bestie Aubrey Ferrell, 2, met in September in the lobby of Boston Children's Hospital while receiving outpatient care for their respective successful kidney transplants.
The two have been inseparable ever since.
"It was like love at first sight!" Boston Children's renal transplant coordinator and nurse practitioner Courtney Loper tells PEOPLE. "They connected with each other over a coloring book and just had this instant bond."
Ayden, of Herkimer, New York, and Aubrey, a Milan, Tennessee, native, only see each other while in Boston for follow-up appointments, so hospital staff always makes sure to schedule the two on the same day.
"We have a lot of kids come in here and play together, but these two were something else," Dr. Nancy Rodig, medical director of renal transplant at Boston Children's, tells PEOPLE. "Aubrey would come out and search the hallways for him, calling his name. She would be on a mission to find him!"
The doctor adds with a laugh, "Oh, and Ayden absolutely loves the attention she pours on him. It's so, so adorable."
Ayden was born with polycystic kidney disease, a disorder which causes clusters of cysts to form within the kidneys.
The toddler received a transplant from his aunt in September and has been coming to Boston Children's Hospital for outpatient care ever since.
"He used to be upset that he had to get his blood work done, and we'd say, 'Well, Aubrey has to do it too!' " Ayden's mother, Cindy Davis tells PEOPLE. "It makes him feel better to know she is going through the same thing, they benefit each other. They help each other to be strong." [Read more]
DAD SAVES SON'S LIFE WITH KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
Darren and Mike Burns (pic with thanks to Tralee Today)
19-year old Darren Burns from Kevin Barry's Villas owes his new lease of life to his dad Mike, who donated one of his kidneys to his son during a five-hour procedure at Beaumont Hospital earlier this month.
Big-hearted Tralee man Mike saved the life of his son Darren (19) by donating him one of his kidneys and says everyone should carry a donor card, as someone’s life is literally in your hands. He told Anton Savage on the Anton Savage Show today that he did not give donating his kidney to Darren a second thought. For one week of soreness, his son has a life, he revealed.
The pair were cool as a cucumber about the procedure, which took place at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, which carries out all adult kidney transplants in Ireland.
Darren diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease at 9 years of age but as he tells Anton it didn’t get in the way of an active life. “I just belted away with it” he said. He had thought pain was appendicitis as it felt like a stitch, but thanks to his mothers determination to get to the bottom of it and her sense that something wasn’t right, he was diagnosed in time.
He could have had a massive heart attack at just 9 years of age if he had not been diagnosed in time.
He’s been on a strict medication regime ever since to keep the condition under control but carried on with his life. “It’s pointless thinking about it, you just belt away,” the positive-thinking lad told Anton.
Back in 2013 his condition began to deteriorate and 4 months ago he was referred to Beaumont Hospital having been told that he needed a life-saving kidney transplant. Luckily, both of Darren's parents Mike and Denise were deemed suitable donors. Not all parents are suitable donors, explained Mike
As the pair recuperate at home in Tralee, they will be in and out of hospital for tests, but Darren says he will be up and running soon and wants to carry on playing football with Tralee’s Na Gaeil. In fact, he played football right up until day before transplant!
Cubs Fan Donates Kidney to Five-Year-Old White Sox Fan
Five-year-old White Sox fan Drew Duszynski was recently given the most amazing gift he’ll ever get in his life. And it came from a complete stranger who just so happens to be a Cubs fan.
Drew was born with a condition called autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, which basically means his kidneys just didn’t work properly from day one. For the first three years of his life Drew was able to manage his condition by taking up to six medications daily to control high potassium, high phosphorous, and high blood pressure. However, by year four his kidney function started to decline rapidly. And by June 2015 both of Drew’s kidneys were removed, meaning he had to undergo dialysis every single day.
At that point, all Drew’s parents could do was sit around and pray that an adult donor would come forward in time to save their son. Meanwhile, friends and family started holding fundraisers and spreading the word via social media, hoping for a miracle.
Then, one day, a 35-year-old man named Chris White came into their lives. He had heard about Drew from his wife, who had heard about him through a friend, who had heard about him through mom’s group on Facebook. White immediately knew that, if he was a match, he wanted to donate a kidney to Drew. His own son, Jack, was also five years old. And he had witnessed first-hand the difference he could make in Drew’s life because his wife donated a kidney to her father years before.
Fortunately, it turned out that Drew and Chris were a match. So the procedure took place last month at Children’s Hospital of Milwaukee.
The fact that Drew is a White Sox fan and Chris is a Cubs fan was not lost on no one.
“I hope that my donation might, at some point, set him straight and influence Drew’s choice in baseball teams,” Chris told Redeye Chicago.
Of course, if you know anything about the Cubs-White Sox rivalry, you know that not even a life-saving act of kindness will be enough to change Drew’s loyalties.
From GazettExtra, Walworth County, Wisconsin, by Catherine W. Idzerda
Janesville couple gives life, gets life
Imagine this: a flock of airborne kidneys, migrating across country in quest of a new home.
It's a migration that requires perfect matches, perfect timing and perfect love.
In exchange, participants get a chance at life.
In December, Gail Chesmore gave her husband, Dan Chesmore, her kidney. Or rather, she exchanged her kidney for someone's healthy one, a swap likely to save at least two lives—perhaps more.
The Chesmores' story started several years ago, when Dan discovered he had polycystic kidney disease, an inherited condition.
Like many other people with the disease, Dan ended up needing a kidney transplant. In 2010, he was lucky enough to get one from his uncle.
But Dan's body started to reject the kidney, and by August 2014, he found himself in the hospital again. Doctors gave him steroids to help reverse the rejection. But the steroids caused a stomach ulcer that led to additional surgery.
By the time his stomach healed, his kidney had failed.
In April 2015, doctors removed the kidney.
“It just wasn't doing him any good,” said Gail.
Throughout this time, Dan was going to dialysis four hours a day, every other day.
In March, Gail decided she would be a living donor for her husband, and doctors said she was a match.
Surgery was scheduled July 1.
“Two weeks before the surgery, they told me I was no longer a match,” Gail said. “It really sucked.”
Dan's antibodies, the substances the body uses to fight infection and foreign pathogens, had changed too much.
“I was disappointed,” Dan said. “We were all ready to go. We were all hoping for this.”
On July 23—Dan's birthday—Gail told him she was willing to take part in the paired kidney exchange program at the University Hospital.
“There are other couples like us out there,” Gail said. “They have a willing donor, but there's not a match.”
In the paired kidney exchange, donors and recipients are entered into a database, and the hunt for donor-recipient pairs begins.
It can be two couples, or it could be many more. Think of it as a large circle of donors and recipients with the lines of connection crisscrossing the center.
“In Madison, they said they had a chain that effected 70 people,” Gail said.
More than 50 transplant centers involved in the “paired kidney exchange” greatly increases the number of compatible matches, according to the University Hospital's program.
In addition, living donors improve patients survival rates and better long-term function for the transplanted organ, according to the transplant program.
Gail and Dan think there were three couples involved in their exchange.
For the paired exchanges to work, donor and recipient surgeries are scheduled the same day. Gail had her surgery in the morning. Meanwhile, Dan's donor was having surgery in another part of the country. There might have been other donors in their exchange, as well.[Read more]
Pkd Proteins Team Up to Tell Cilia Which Way to Go
Ayden Mosher, 3, and his bestie Aubrey Ferrell, 2, met in September in the lobby of Boston Children's Hospital while receiving outpatient care for their respective successful kidney transplants.
The two have been inseparable ever since.
"It was like love at first sight!" Boston Children's renal transplant coordinator and nurse practitioner Courtney Loper tells PEOPLE. "They connected with each other over a coloring book and just had this instant bond."
Ayden, of Herkimer, New York, and Aubrey, a Milan, Tennessee, native, only see each other while in Boston for follow-up appointments, so hospital staff always makes sure to schedule the two on the same day.
"We have a lot of kids come in here and play together, but these two were something else," Dr. Nancy Rodig, medical director of renal transplant at Boston Children's, tells PEOPLE. "Aubrey would come out and search the hallways for him, calling his name. She would be on a mission to find him!"
The doctor adds with a laugh, "Oh, and Ayden absolutely loves the attention she pours on him. It's so, so adorable."
Ayden was born with polycystic kidney disease, a disorder which causes clusters of cysts to form within the kidneys.
The toddler received a transplant from his aunt in September and has been coming to Boston Children's Hospital for outpatient care ever since.
"He used to be upset that he had to get his blood work done, and we'd say, 'Well, Aubrey has to do it too!' " Ayden's mother, Cindy Davis tells PEOPLE. "It makes him feel better to know she is going through the same thing, they benefit each other. They help each other to be strong." [Read more]
From Today FM, Dublin, Ireland
19-year old Darren Burns from Kevin Barry's Villas owes his new lease of life to his dad Mike, who donated one of his kidneys to his son during a five-hour procedure at Beaumont Hospital earlier this month.
Big-hearted Tralee man Mike saved the life of his son Darren (19) by donating him one of his kidneys and says everyone should carry a donor card, as someone’s life is literally in your hands. He told Anton Savage on the Anton Savage Show today that he did not give donating his kidney to Darren a second thought. For one week of soreness, his son has a life, he revealed.
The pair were cool as a cucumber about the procedure, which took place at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, which carries out all adult kidney transplants in Ireland.
Darren diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease at 9 years of age but as he tells Anton it didn’t get in the way of an active life. “I just belted away with it” he said. He had thought pain was appendicitis as it felt like a stitch, but thanks to his mothers determination to get to the bottom of it and her sense that something wasn’t right, he was diagnosed in time.
He could have had a massive heart attack at just 9 years of age if he had not been diagnosed in time.
He’s been on a strict medication regime ever since to keep the condition under control but carried on with his life. “It’s pointless thinking about it, you just belt away,” the positive-thinking lad told Anton.
Back in 2013 his condition began to deteriorate and 4 months ago he was referred to Beaumont Hospital having been told that he needed a life-saving kidney transplant. Luckily, both of Darren's parents Mike and Denise were deemed suitable donors. Not all parents are suitable donors, explained Mike
As the pair recuperate at home in Tralee, they will be in and out of hospital for tests, but Darren says he will be up and running soon and wants to carry on playing football with Tralee’s Na Gaeil. In fact, he played football right up until day before transplant!
From Total Pro Sports
Cubs Fan Donates Kidney to Five-Year-Old White Sox Fan
Five-year-old White Sox fan Drew Duszynski was recently given the most amazing gift he’ll ever get in his life. And it came from a complete stranger who just so happens to be a Cubs fan.
Drew was born with a condition called autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, which basically means his kidneys just didn’t work properly from day one. For the first three years of his life Drew was able to manage his condition by taking up to six medications daily to control high potassium, high phosphorous, and high blood pressure. However, by year four his kidney function started to decline rapidly. And by June 2015 both of Drew’s kidneys were removed, meaning he had to undergo dialysis every single day.
At that point, all Drew’s parents could do was sit around and pray that an adult donor would come forward in time to save their son. Meanwhile, friends and family started holding fundraisers and spreading the word via social media, hoping for a miracle.
Then, one day, a 35-year-old man named Chris White came into their lives. He had heard about Drew from his wife, who had heard about him through a friend, who had heard about him through mom’s group on Facebook. White immediately knew that, if he was a match, he wanted to donate a kidney to Drew. His own son, Jack, was also five years old. And he had witnessed first-hand the difference he could make in Drew’s life because his wife donated a kidney to her father years before.
Fortunately, it turned out that Drew and Chris were a match. So the procedure took place last month at Children’s Hospital of Milwaukee.
The fact that Drew is a White Sox fan and Chris is a Cubs fan was not lost on no one.
“I hope that my donation might, at some point, set him straight and influence Drew’s choice in baseball teams,” Chris told Redeye Chicago.
Of course, if you know anything about the Cubs-White Sox rivalry, you know that not even a life-saving act of kindness will be enough to change Drew’s loyalties.
Imagine this: a flock of airborne kidneys, migrating across country in quest of a new home.
It's a migration that requires perfect matches, perfect timing and perfect love.
In exchange, participants get a chance at life.
In December, Gail Chesmore gave her husband, Dan Chesmore, her kidney. Or rather, she exchanged her kidney for someone's healthy one, a swap likely to save at least two lives—perhaps more.
The Chesmores' story started several years ago, when Dan discovered he had polycystic kidney disease, an inherited condition.
Like many other people with the disease, Dan ended up needing a kidney transplant. In 2010, he was lucky enough to get one from his uncle.
But Dan's body started to reject the kidney, and by August 2014, he found himself in the hospital again. Doctors gave him steroids to help reverse the rejection. But the steroids caused a stomach ulcer that led to additional surgery.
By the time his stomach healed, his kidney had failed.
In April 2015, doctors removed the kidney.
“It just wasn't doing him any good,” said Gail.
Throughout this time, Dan was going to dialysis four hours a day, every other day.
In March, Gail decided she would be a living donor for her husband, and doctors said she was a match.
Surgery was scheduled July 1.
“Two weeks before the surgery, they told me I was no longer a match,” Gail said. “It really sucked.”
Dan's antibodies, the substances the body uses to fight infection and foreign pathogens, had changed too much.
“I was disappointed,” Dan said. “We were all ready to go. We were all hoping for this.”
On July 23—Dan's birthday—Gail told him she was willing to take part in the paired kidney exchange program at the University Hospital.
“There are other couples like us out there,” Gail said. “They have a willing donor, but there's not a match.”
In the paired kidney exchange, donors and recipients are entered into a database, and the hunt for donor-recipient pairs begins.
It can be two couples, or it could be many more. Think of it as a large circle of donors and recipients with the lines of connection crisscrossing the center.
“In Madison, they said they had a chain that effected 70 people,” Gail said.
More than 50 transplant centers involved in the “paired kidney exchange” greatly increases the number of compatible matches, according to the University Hospital's program.
In addition, living donors improve patients survival rates and better long-term function for the transplanted organ, according to the transplant program.
Gail and Dan think there were three couples involved in their exchange.
For the paired exchanges to work, donor and recipient surgeries are scheduled the same day. Gail had her surgery in the morning. Meanwhile, Dan's donor was having surgery in another part of the country. There might have been other donors in their exchange, as well.[Read more]
PKD Research
From Journal of Neuroscience (PDF of article available)
Living with PKD
From The Houma Courier, Houma, LA, By Kevinisha Walker
Houma woman waiting on kidney transplant
Some days, Joan Ledet Stoks is in good spirits. Other days, she's extremely tired and exhausted. She often can't stand for very long because her back aches so badly.
"Even sweeping the floor is painful," the Houma native said.
While Stoks' pains seem run of the mill, the disease that causes them isn't.
Stoks is suffering with Polycystic Kidney Disease, which is a genetic disease that causes uncontrolled growth of cysts in the kidney.
Stoks' father, who died from complications stemming from the disease, passed it down to her and her siblings.
In addition to large cyst growth, symptoms include back aches, high blood pressure, blood in the urine, kidney infections, kidney stones, kidney failure, aneurysm of the brain and enlarged bellies.
Her sister Jeanine Louviere died from the disease's complications in 2012, and while her brother Mark died a year later from lung cancer, he suffered with the illness, too.
Now, Stoks and her brother Leonard Ledet, Jr. are the only two living siblings.
"I just can't put into words what it means to have these two kids with me now because I lost my other two," EraMae Halbert said of her remaining children.
Eight years ago, Ledet, Jr. received a kidney transplant as he was suffering with complications of PKD.
Currently, Stoks is hoping for a miracle as a chance encounter over the summer with a California woman may lead to a kidney transplant.
The 57-year-old attended her stepdaughter's graduation party in San Diego last June. And after sharing her PKD struggles with Rebecca Quinones Sergi at the party, Sergi offered to get tested for the kidney transplant.
From The Houma Courier, Houma, LA, By Kevinisha Walker
Some days, Joan Ledet Stoks is in good spirits. Other days, she's extremely tired and exhausted. She often can't stand for very long because her back aches so badly.
"Even sweeping the floor is painful," the Houma native said.
While Stoks' pains seem run of the mill, the disease that causes them isn't.
Stoks is suffering with Polycystic Kidney Disease, which is a genetic disease that causes uncontrolled growth of cysts in the kidney.
Stoks' father, who died from complications stemming from the disease, passed it down to her and her siblings.
In addition to large cyst growth, symptoms include back aches, high blood pressure, blood in the urine, kidney infections, kidney stones, kidney failure, aneurysm of the brain and enlarged bellies.
Her sister Jeanine Louviere died from the disease's complications in 2012, and while her brother Mark died a year later from lung cancer, he suffered with the illness, too.
Now, Stoks and her brother Leonard Ledet, Jr. are the only two living siblings.
"I just can't put into words what it means to have these two kids with me now because I lost my other two," EraMae Halbert said of her remaining children.
Eight years ago, Ledet, Jr. received a kidney transplant as he was suffering with complications of PKD.
Currently, Stoks is hoping for a miracle as a chance encounter over the summer with a California woman may lead to a kidney transplant.
The 57-year-old attended her stepdaughter's graduation party in San Diego last June. And after sharing her PKD struggles with Rebecca Quinones Sergi at the party, Sergi offered to get tested for the kidney transplant.
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