From WPXI, Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh man's decision to donate kidney helps save 6 lives
Two strangers are forever linked after a decision to donate a kidney ended up saving six lives.
Leanne Ermert was close to being on daily dialysis in December as polycystic kidney disease left her in need of a new kidney.
Channel 11 News has followed Ermert’s story, which caught the attention of Willie Rhodes.
“I thought about it for a little bit and I just said, ‘What the heck, I've done nothing special in my life. I've got no kids. Maybe this is why God's been waking me up in the mornings,’” Rhodes said.
He decided to reach out to Ermert, and the two immediately bonded.
“She is from South Park, so hey, it's one Pittsburgher helping out another,” Rhodes said.
But Rhodes’ kidney was a match for more than just Ermert.
“My kidney went to a man in Wisconsin, 40 years old, who they said had an 84 percent chance of not getting a match,” he said.
Rhodes’ donation set off a six-person chain of kidney donations that ended with one from California going to Ermert. Confidentiality rules prevent them from knowing who the other people are, but they do know that so far everyone is healthy and healing -- including Ermert.
“I got what I wanted when I went to go see her on Friday. She was, there was so much light in her face,” Rhodes said.
Leanne Ermert was close to being on daily dialysis in December as polycystic kidney disease left her in need of a new kidney.
Channel 11 News has followed Ermert’s story, which caught the attention of Willie Rhodes.
“I thought about it for a little bit and I just said, ‘What the heck, I've done nothing special in my life. I've got no kids. Maybe this is why God's been waking me up in the mornings,’” Rhodes said.
He decided to reach out to Ermert, and the two immediately bonded.
“She is from South Park, so hey, it's one Pittsburgher helping out another,” Rhodes said.
But Rhodes’ kidney was a match for more than just Ermert.
“My kidney went to a man in Wisconsin, 40 years old, who they said had an 84 percent chance of not getting a match,” he said.
Rhodes’ donation set off a six-person chain of kidney donations that ended with one from California going to Ermert. Confidentiality rules prevent them from knowing who the other people are, but they do know that so far everyone is healthy and healing -- including Ermert.
“I got what I wanted when I went to go see her on Friday. She was, there was so much light in her face,” Rhodes said.
Acquired cystic kidney disease is a form of kidney disease that develops in later stages of chronic kidney disease and most commonly after a patient has started to undergo dialysis to clean the blood.
Symptoms
Acquired cystic kidney disease differs from other forms of kidney diseases with cyst development in that it is fairly asymptomatic. The patient rarely feels much from the presence of the cysts in their kidneys. The kidney tends to remain the same size rather than expand due to the fluid filled sacs. Thus unlike polycystic kidney disease where the gradually expanding kidneys can be uncomfortable for the patient, an individual with the acquired cystic kidney disease can be oblivious to the structures developing inside them.
The presence of the cysts may become apparent should a cyst burst. This can cause the patient to feel pain or possibly develop a fever. Further investigation would then potentially reveal the cause. Signs of the disease can also include blood in the urine, a lump in the stomach, reduced appetite, pain at the side of the body, anemia and weight loss.
Another potential complication is that a cyst may become cancerous and cause renal cell carcinoma. This occurs in about 7% of cases, and the cancer is located in the tubules of the kidney. These are the structures that help to filter the blood from the kidney and create the urine that we excrete from our bodies.
The longer a person has dialysis, the higher the risk is of them developing renal cell cancer as a result of acquired cystic kidney disease as this disease becomes more likely with the length of time that a person experiences end stage renal disease.
Causes
The initial kidney failure, also known as end stage renal disease, that triggers the development of acquired cystic kidney disease can be caused by a number of different triggers such as diabetes, lupus, heart problems and urinary tract conditions. These diseases can result in permanent damage to the kidneys. Genetic diseases can also be implicated in the deterioration of the kidneys; however, acquired kidney disease is not by itself a hereditary disease.
Many researchers hypothesize that nephron loss of any etiology results in compensatory tubular cell hyperplasia in the intact nephrons. This response usually starts by activation of proto-oncogenes and release of various growth factors, which in turn accumulate in patients with chronic kidney insufficiency. Over a prolonged period of time, these factors then lead to tubular hyperplasia and subsequent cyst formation.
Regardless of such hypotheses, the causes of the cysts in acquired cystic kidney disease are not yet fully understood. The cysts only develop in the kidneys and nowhere else in the patient so are considered to occur as a result of activity in this area but this has not been proved. It has been suggested that they are a result of the build-up of waste products that the kidneys, with male hormones also playing a role. The lack of knowledge in the field means that the disease cannot currently be cured.
From Kilgore News Herald, Kilgore TX, by James Drapper
'You get back up'
Coke’s one of the things Wilbur Yates misses, “that carbonated water taste,” but there’s another absence he’s feeling more keenly at the moment – a good night’s sleep. He’s counting sheep as he counts the hours and days ahead until a new kidney donor is matched.
The Glomerular Filstration Rate measures how effectively the kidneys are working: 20 is a milestone on a downward trend, 15 marks renal failure and Yates is hovering around a GFR of 6. He’s on dialysis nine long hours each night, and what he thought would be a temporary setup has become, at the moment, an indefinite trial.
Poised to receive a kidney from a ready, willing and able donor, a little more than a week ago Yates learned the bad news: there were complications. Though a direct match, an eleventh hour update disqualified the donor.
On paper, the procedure was scheduled for Aug. 31. That date’s gone now.
“It was hard. It was fairly devastating,” Yates said. “When you’ve got two weeks and you’ve got the operating room reserved, that was hard, that was not what we were expecting. We were surprised.”
After a year of paperwork and preparation, the Edward Jones financial advisor made the Baylor Transplant Services list in January. He was added to East Texas Medical Center’s transplant program a few months later.
Awaiting a match, “I got pretty rundown. Really rundown,” he said Wednesday. “Actually to the point both doctors said I would need to go on dialysis, ‘to get cleaned up.’”
Yates opted for peritoneal dialysis.
“That allows him to still be able to come in and work,” his executive assistant, Donna Beets, explained. “Regular dialysis would interfere with work … very cumbersome, and it’s very time consuming.”
Though a bother at night, peritoneal dialysis is an easier procedure Yates said, slower and less stressful on the body.
“My whole purpose is, I’m going to continue to work,” he insisted. “I enjoy working and being with and enjoying my clients. [Read more]
From YouCare
We must help Darell Drew's symtoms of PKD and dialyisis!
My good friend of 42 years! was diagnosed with PKD in 1985. PKD,Polycystic Kidney Disease, is an incurable genetic disorder that is characterized by a life of cysts plaguing the kidneys and disrupting their normal functions. He has been bravely battling the disease for more than 30 years, 10 of which he has relied on kidney dialysis to perform the functions of normal, healthy kidneys. Darrell was placed on the kidney donor list back in 2006 and is anxiously awaiting good news. Please help make Darrell's journal as comfortable as possible by donating towards our goal of $6,000. to provide him with necessary vitamins, minerals and medicine needed to make him feel better and stay healthy enough to stay on the donor list.
The Glomerular Filstration Rate measures how effectively the kidneys are working: 20 is a milestone on a downward trend, 15 marks renal failure and Yates is hovering around a GFR of 6. He’s on dialysis nine long hours each night, and what he thought would be a temporary setup has become, at the moment, an indefinite trial.
Poised to receive a kidney from a ready, willing and able donor, a little more than a week ago Yates learned the bad news: there were complications. Though a direct match, an eleventh hour update disqualified the donor.
On paper, the procedure was scheduled for Aug. 31. That date’s gone now.
“It was hard. It was fairly devastating,” Yates said. “When you’ve got two weeks and you’ve got the operating room reserved, that was hard, that was not what we were expecting. We were surprised.”
After a year of paperwork and preparation, the Edward Jones financial advisor made the Baylor Transplant Services list in January. He was added to East Texas Medical Center’s transplant program a few months later.
Awaiting a match, “I got pretty rundown. Really rundown,” he said Wednesday. “Actually to the point both doctors said I would need to go on dialysis, ‘to get cleaned up.’”
Yates opted for peritoneal dialysis.
“That allows him to still be able to come in and work,” his executive assistant, Donna Beets, explained. “Regular dialysis would interfere with work … very cumbersome, and it’s very time consuming.”
Though a bother at night, peritoneal dialysis is an easier procedure Yates said, slower and less stressful on the body.
“My whole purpose is, I’m going to continue to work,” he insisted. “I enjoy working and being with and enjoying my clients. [Read more]
From YouCare
We must help Darell Drew's symtoms of PKD and dialyisis!
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