Fifteen-year-old Lauren Sampson, originally from Lower Walton, thought she had a chest infection when she was diagnosed with end renal failure in 2008, a condition which means her kidneys can fail at any time.
But following transplant surgery in 2009 with a kidney donated from dad Lee Sampson, Lauren is enjoying life including her dream meeting with the boy band in London last week. READ MORE>>
Nicholas Crace, a former charity director from the leafy English county of Hampshire, decided to donate a kidney to Britain’s National Health Service following the death of his wife in 2011, when he found he had more time for voluntary work.
“I’ve had an easy, comfortable life…I thought it was about time I paid back some of my good fortune. I was fit, I had no dependents and plenty of time,” Crace told Reuters in a phone interview. READ MORE>>
By Mike Lloyd / News 1130
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Earlier this week, News1130 told you about Phil Rosario, a man from Pitt Meadows who underwent a kidney transplant after Scott Dudley, a complete stranger from Washington, stepped forward to donate.
Dudley, who is the mayor of Oak Harbour, isn’t alone in his inspiring act of generosity; BC Transplant says a handful of special people step up every year, saving the lives of dozens of people they have never met. READ MORE>>
By Sheila Eldred / Discovery News
Add organ shortage to the list of issues blamed on obesity. More than 22 percent of potential candidates were excluded from a pool of kidney donors as a result of their weight, Mala Sachdeva, M.D., of North Shore-LIJ Health System Transplant Center on Long Island, N.Y., and colleagues reported at last week’s National Kidney Foundation meeting.
From the data presented at the conference, just 18 percent of 104 potential living kidney donors seen at the researchers’ center between 2008 and 2011 had a BMI considered to be within the normal range (25 or below). Most fell into the overweight-to-obese categories: Thirty-seven percent had a BMI between 25 and 30, and the rest had a BMI of 30 or above. Most centers exclude donors who have a BMI of 35 or above, because of a stronger possibility of poorer outcomes for both donor and recipient. READ MORE>>
Sarah Hyland on Monday revealed her years-long struggle with kidney displasia, and her April kidney transplant. (Jason Redmond / Associated Press / March 31, 2012)
Sarah Hyland has been keeping a pretty big secret for a very long time: The 21-year-old “Modern Family” actress has grappled with kidney disease since she was in single digits.
The good news? In April she got a kidney transplant, and now she’s sharing her story, via Seventeen and “Good Morning America.”
“My dad gave me a freakin’ kidney!” she told Seventeen, which features her on its June/July cover. She said she knew she could always count on her family for support, but “it’s also the families that you create outside of your family. And you really find out what kind of people you’re friends with.” It was, she said, an eye-opening experience.
She told the mag she was especially lucky to have boyfriend Matt Prokop, whom she met on “High School Musical 3” a few years back. He also made a “Modern Family” appearance this past season as her TV beau. READ MORE>>
By Manal Ismail / The National
The 58-year-old knew it was only a matter of time before he suffered renal failure and faced the pain of dialysis and, eventually, surgery.
Mr El Nour said: “My appendix burst, and while doctors were examining me after the surgery, they found out that my kidneys were not functioning properly and that my toxicity levels were too high.” READ ORE>>
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD / MedPageToday
WASHINGTON — Patients who have a second kidney transplant may not be as bound for failure as once thought, researchers said here.
In a retrospective, single-center study, there were no significant differences in graft survival at one and five years between primary and secondary transplants among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, Syed Jawad Sher, MD, of Indiana University, and colleagues reported at the National Kidney Foundation meeting here. READ MORE>>
By Steven Ross Johnson / The Baltimore Sun
By the time Ray Fearing was first diagnosed with a rare kidney disease back in 2000, the damage that had already been done was such that a transplant would eventually be his only option.
“By then, they (the doctors) had noticed there was a lot of protein” leaking from his kidneys, said Fearing, 27, of Arlington Heights. “I think I was at about like 20 percent kidney function when they did my first biopsy, and it deteriorated to 13 percent within a year or two.”
Fearing was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, a disease that causes scarring on the kidney and makes it unable to properly filter waste in the blood. The illness is mostly found in young adults, and about 5,400 people are diagnosed with it each year, according to research advocacy organization NephCure Foundation. READ MORE>>
By SALLY SATEL / Newsday
Facebook Inc. took a momentous action last week. And I don’t mean its announced intention to sell shares for $28 to $35 in an initial public offering later this month. The company invited users to register to become organ donors.
Forty-eight hours later, more than 100,000 people had indicated, on Facebook Timeline, their wish to be a donor when they die. As a result, online state donor registries experienced a 23-fold surge, according to Donate Life America.
For the 114,000 people waiting for a kidney, liver, heart or lung — 7,000 to 10,000 of whom die each year — Facebook has performed a great service. For more than two decades, advocates have been urging people to sign up as donors when they renew their driver’s license, yet only about 43 percent have done so. Facebook has made it much easier. READ MORE>>
CINCINNATI, May 08, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — One week prior to her 21st birthday, esthetic consultant Katelyn Rankin-Woeste will be checking into Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in preparation to undergo a life-changing surgery, during which she will donate a kidney to a five-year-old boy named Vincent who she met while attending a barbecue last year. An active blood donor and mother of a seven-month-old daughter, Rankin-Woeste abides by the “pay it forward” motto and is relying on the goodwill of others to help cover her post-surgery expenses through donations to Cincinnati.MD, which she successfully utilized to easily find a surgeon for this upcoming procedure. READ MORE>>
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