Kidney

A gunshot victim whose kidneys, pancreas, heart and liver were transplanted into four recipients transmitted an uncommon parasite to several of them, health officials reported Thursday, suggesting that new screening guidelines may be needed. The infection apparently involved patients at Temple University Hospital and Geisinger Medical Center in central Pennsylvania. The parasite, Strongyloides stercoralis , is found mainly in and around the tropics, and no national guidelines recommend screening donors, according to the investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ON SEPT. 9, 1997, I received a life saving kidney transplant at Thomas Jefferson Hospital from my brother Joe, saving my life. When I was first told I would need a transplant, I presented the situation to him. Without a blink of an eye, he agreed. The exams building up to the transplant are torture in themselves, and the donor goes through much pain in extracting the kidney. They had to remove two of Joe's ribs to get the kidney out. There was a three-month recovery before he was able to go back to work.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Cris Carter was hospitalized yesterday with what was initially diagnosed as a kidney abnormality, ESPN.com reported yesterday. Carter will not play in tonight's game against the New York Jets and is out indefinitely, the Web site said. Doctors won't know the cause of Carter's symptoms until tests are complete. Carter, who began his career with the Eagles, ended a brief retirement and joined the Dolphins in October, signing a one-year contract.

She has held the same tortured pose for more than 130 years, her face contorted, her mouth open wide in a scream. Bony hands press against her sides, and strands of strawberry-blond hair fall behind her. Who is this mysterious woman at the Mütter Museum in Center City? How and when did she die? And what can modern science tell us about her? One night last week, after the museum closed, radiographers, forensics experts and technicians attempted to pry the secrets from the so-called "soap lady" using high-tech portable X-ray equipment.

Seahawks safety Kenny Easley saw a physician in Seattle yesterday for a previously undetected kidney condition that is keeping him from joining the Phoenix Cardinals, but Easley's attorney said more tests and exams by specialists are needed before a diagnosis and treatment can be announced. "His mood is upbeat," said Leigh Steinberg, Easley's attorney, in Berkeley, Calif. Easley was examined Friday by Cardinals team physician Russell Chick, an orthopedic surgeon, and Morton Dubnow, an internist.

When Anne Peniazek decided to donate a kidney at age 65, the Narberth woman had bigger hopes than helping just one person. She and her surgeon James Lim of Lankenau Medical Center wanted to start a movement. Instead of arranging a typical kidney donation, Lim helped her start an open-ended kidney-donation chain, one of a small number in the United States. In December, Peniazek's kidney was given to Geoff Bowman of Philadelphia, who at age 32 had already had three transplants.

Jane Smith, who teaches eighth-grade science, is about as "giving" as a person can be. Yesterday she said that, as soon as she saw him smile after the four-hour transplant surgery they shared, she felt great about donating a kidney to one of her students. The 43-year-old teacher and the student, Michaelo Carter, 15, are recovering at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, N.C. Since she announced in August that she would donate the kidney, she had avoided publicity. But yesterday she appeared with the attending surgeon to urge others to become organ donors.

Gloria Harris (cover story, April 17): I know what it is to need a transplant to live. I am a transplant recipient myself. Your brother, Barry Howell, is a lifetime criminal who belongs in jail for many years. Transplants follow the law, social and moral rules and regulations - and a waiting list. This transplant would be a travesty of justice. What about the people he victimized? Has he made restitutions? Many things need to be considered before a decision can be rendered.

Many a son would give his right arm to have a relationship with his dad like 33-year-old Joe Berardoni Jr. has with his. After his wife died and he was left a single father, the elder Berardoni would skip out of work to catch his son's soccer and basketball games. They forged such a special bond that "young Joe" — who shares a quirky sense of humor with his father, if not his diminutive stature — didn't hesitate when his dad asked him more than a decade ago to work side by side, day after day, at Pun's Toys, his whimsical shop on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr.

You're a healthy young business traveler who finds himself at a party where an attractive woman takes an interest. She feeds you booze and drugs nonstop. Finally, you pass out. You awaken naked in a bathtub filled with ice. On your chest, a message is written in lipstick: "Call 911 or you will die!" The 911 operator tells you to check your back. In the mirror, you see two nine-inch slits near the base of the spine. The operator tells you to get back in the tub immediately.

A gunshot victim whose kidneys, pancreas, heart and liver were transplanted into four recipients transmitted an uncommon parasite to several of them, health officials reported Thursday, suggesting that new screening guidelines may be needed. The infection apparently involved patients at Temple University Hospital and Geisinger Medical Center in central Pennsylvania. The parasite, Strongyloides stercoralis , is found mainly in and around the tropics, and no national guidelines recommend screening donors, according to the investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DEAR ABBY: I always knew high blood pressure ran in my family, but I never realized that it could cause kidney disease. Because I felt healthy, I hadn't worried about my "borderline" hypertension. Turns out, my kidneys were silently being damaged. I have since made lifestyle changes to control my blood pressure and prevent further damage. These include daily exercise and cutting back on salt, sweets and fast food. March is National Kidney Month, and March 14 is World Kidney Day. The National Kidney Foundation is urging Americans to learn their risk factors for kidney disease and to get their kidneys checked with a simple urine and blood test.

The e-mail that Nancy Gleason received last September was lengthy: a last-ditch plea from a distant relative, writing to ask if she knew anyone who might be willing to donate a kidney to a stranger. Gleason clicked the "forward" button and typed in her husband's e-mail address. Her e-mail was just one line long: "We're both O-positive. I'm in if you are. " Eight months later, Chief Joe Gleason of the West Goshen Police Department was heading into surgery at the Mayo Clinic, about to give a major organ to a woman he had met two days before.

Joseph E. Murray, 93, the surgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School who performed the first human organ transplant almost six decades ago, died Monday. The cause was a stroke, said his son Richard Murray. Dr. Murray shared a 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work. In 1954, he led a team of Brigham doctors that gave Richard Herrick, 23, a kidney from his identical twin, Ronald. Since then, more than 600,000 people have received organs through transplantation techniques pioneered by Dr. Murray and his collaborators.

LAST JUNE the Daily News chronicled the story of longtime basketball official Joe DeMayo, a Northeast Philadelphia native, and the efforts of his colleagues to raise money to help his sons Michael and Joe Jr. in their battle with pediatric kidney disease. Now a benefit is being held by the family's friends in the community. It will take place Nov. 16 from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Local 692 Sprinkler Fitters Hall on McNulty Road in Parkwood. Tickets for the beef and beer are $40. The organizers, who are also soliciting auction items, encourage those that can't attend to support the cause by making any donation they can. For more information, Lou DeCree can be reached at 215-620-2270 or at loudecree@comcast.net . Or you can contact George Geiss at Hlinesman@aol.com . DeCree met DeMayo when they played against each other years ago in the Del-Val semipro league.

The math never made any sense to Crystal Perkins. Medicare paid more than $100,000 for her kidney transplant and for three years covered the bulk of the $2,400-a-month drug that kept her body from rejecting the organ. But then her Medicare coverage expired. For a few years she managed to keep up her medications, paying out of pocket or begging at pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. But eventually she started skipping doses, and by 2009, the kidney was failing and had to be removed.

AS WE SLOG through summer's dog days, let's pause to revisit four stories that elicited big reader reaction. Our first update burns Frank Maimone the way hot pizza burns the roof of your mouth. Maimone, you may recall, owns Rustica Pizza, in Northern Liberties. On Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday, he received 12 bogus calls for a total of $1,200 worth of pizza and wing deliveries. The orders came from blocked numbers, but his phone carrier, Verizon, wouldn't divulge the identity of the caller(s)

Many a son would give his right arm to have a relationship with his dad like 33-year-old Joe Berardoni Jr. has with his. After his wife died and he was left a single father, the elder Berardoni would skip out of work to catch his son's soccer and basketball games. They forged such a special bond that "young Joe" — who shares a quirky sense of humor with his father, if not his diminutive stature — didn't hesitate when his dad asked him more than a decade ago to work side by side, day after day, at Pun's Toys, his whimsical shop on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr.

HOW MANY billboard owners does it take to snag a kidney?   Ten — if one of them is an obedient son. Luckily for Aretha Swift, Thaddeus Bartkowski is a very obedient son. A few months ago, Bartkowski's mom was listening to KYW radio while driving and heard a story about Swift. Swift's kidneys had failed, but no one among her family and friends was a suitable match to donate a kidney to her. So she was placed on a waiting list to receive one from a cadaver or living donor.