Kidney

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.

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.

Just weeks after receiving a kidney donated by his wife, Ann, funnyman George Lopez says he feels as if he has taken ownership of his life. "It hasn't even been a month and I feel alive," Lopez, 44, says in an interview on ABC's Primetime Live, to air tonight at 10. "I feel as good as I did bad. I mean, it's unbelievable. Everything has changed. My personality has changed, my appetite has changed, my energy level has changed. " Lopez, star of the ABC comedy George Lopez, had a genetic condition that caused kidney deterioration.

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.

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.

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.

Basketball official Joe DeMayo made his biggest call last week. Not one person booed, jeered or shouted complaints. No one needed the call - nor will appreciate it later - more than DeMayo's son, Michael, who turns 5 this Saturday. By then, Michael, who received a kidney from Joe on July 31, should be back in his Northeast Philly home from St. Christopher's Hospital. "We knew this was coming when Michael was 3 months old," said DeMayo, 40, who referees numerous college and high school games, including championships in both the Public and Catholic leagues.

The NFL career of five-time Pro Bowl safety Kenny Easley of the Seattle Seahawks probably is over because of a serious kidney ailment. "If he has to go to dialysis, there's no way he can play football," Seahawks president-general manager Mike McCormack said yesterday. Leigh Steinberg, Easley's agent, said that "it appears that treatment will start fairly soon. " Steinberg said results from tests conducted this week by kidney specialists in Seattle indicated Easley, 29, has a kidney condition that requires treatment, probably dialysis.

IT WAS ONE of those letters that made me throw my hands in the air. "Please help my son get a kidney," the woman wrote in shaky script. "I am elderly, and he takes care of me. He has bad kidney disease and is getting sicker. He needs a kidney. " So, she asked: Could I find one for him? I was about to call and tell her that some things are beyond the powers of even the most sympathetic reporter, but then a letter landed on my desk. It was from an inmate in a Pennsylvania prison, and he had a request.

Laurence Elliot Earley, 81, former chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, died of cancer Tuesday, March 13, at Beaumont, a retirement community in Bryn Mawr. Dr. Earley joined the medical school faculty in 1977. He chaired the department for 13 years and was also interim chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation from 1987 to 1990. He was senior associate dean for international medical programs for five years in the 1990s, traveling to strengthen Penn's connections with institutions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Aaron Bradley got to sing his favorite song at his own funeral Saturday, and when they played the tenor's recording of "Defying Gravity," it brought nearly everyone in the First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown to tears. Afterward, the singing went on for hours at a reception with an assist from a Rutgers-Camden choir and impromptu karaoke from everyone else. For Trish and Andrew Maunder, who had given Bradley a home in 2004 and were making plans to adopt him, the celebration felt just right.

DEAR ABBY: For years, I suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes. I never had a clue that they are the two leading causes of kidney failure. After reading in your column about National Kidney Month, I decided to take your suggestion and go to the National Kidney Foundation website at kidney.org. When I attended their free screening through the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), I found out that high blood pressure can damage the kidney, and that diabetes is the No. 1 risk factor for kidney disease.

The family of 3-year-old Amelia Rivera has known since her birth that the brown-eyed girl was headed for kidney trouble. And sure enough in December, a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia physician said the girl would need a transplant within six months to a year, according to her mother, Chrissy Rivera. For now, however, it won't be happening at Children's. The girls' parents say they were told last week by a different physician at the hospital that she was not a good candidate for a transplant because she was "mentally retarded.

IF YOU DON'T know the name Amelia Rivera, you will soon. Her story is going viral as I type this. It's no wonder. Amelia is the embodiment of our ongoing moral debate about whom we let live, whom we let go and the line that separates the two. It's a line that, thanks to medical technology and uneven access to its life-saving powers, continues to blur and shift. Three-year-old Amelia ("Mia" to her Stratford, N.J., parents, Chrissy and Joe, and her big brothers, Joey and Nathan)

DEAR ABBY: I have two sons, 19 and 12. My younger boy has a rare form of kidney disease. His kidney function is now normal, but his doctor says that in the future he may need a new kidney. At that point, his brother would be high on the list for compatibility and availability. I, sadly, would not. How does one mention the possibility of being a donor to his older brother? Is it even fair to ask? If he doesn't offer, would I always resent it? Should we wait until there is a real need before asking?

Question: What do the "BUN" and "creatinine" lab tests mean? Answer: BUN stands for "Blood Urea Nitrogen" and represents a breakdown product of protein digestion. Protein is digested into amino acids. Amino acids contain nitrogen, which is split off to form ammonia waste, while the rest of the amino acid is used to provide calories (fuel) for your body. The liver helps in this protein breakdown, eventually combining the ammonia waste to form the main waste product of protein breakdown: urea.

James H. Dougherty, 65, a retired Conshohocken police chief known affectionately as "Chief Doc," died Wednesday, Sept. 21, at Mercy Suburban Hospital from complications of kidney disease. A highly decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Dougherty was a lifelong resident of Conshohocken who never fell out of love with his hometown - "the best damn town in the world," as he put it. "Doc lived for Conshohocken," said his wife, Jane. "His whole career was to just be there to help people.

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.