Personal
Story
In order to protect the privacy of the patient, the patient will be referred to as “Jane” in this story. Jane was 50 years old when she was in a devastating car accident that nearly took her life. Jane spent months in the hospital recovering after the accident, which is where she contracted sepsis. Sepsis is an overwhelming bacterial infection of the blood and body organs which is caused by bacteria that has entered body tissue, most often through a wound or incision, leading to the spread of the bacteria. The sepsis was contracted through an I.V. needle when she entered the hospital. The sepsis then spread to Jane’s kidneys, shutting them down and putting her in renal failure. Jane now requires hemodialysis three days a week, four hours per treatment to be able to live. In addition to having to deal with recovering from a car accident and living with a chronic illness, Jane has two children she is trying to put through college and had not been able to work since the accident to generate any money. Her medical bills were piling up, not to mention she had to afford an average of seven medications a month, plus afford transportation to get to her life sustaining treatments. Jane was not able to find any assistance from other non-profit organizations and was receiving limited government assistance. After breaking down under extreme stress, Jane finally decided to talk to her social worker about all of the emotional, physical and financial crises she had been suffering through. Her social worker contacted the Kidney Foundation of Northwest Ohio to step in and help relieve Jane of some of the pain she was dealing with. The Kidney Foundation was able to provide financial assistance and pay for Jane’s life sustaining medications, in addition to the emotional support that was provided to her. The Kidney Foundation also assisted with other help and slowly but surely Jane started digging herself out of the hole that she was thrown into since she was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease. Jane now has a steady job working as a waitress at Chili’s and is once again the independent woman that always prides herself with being self supporting. Her hobbies include spending time with her children and being an inspirational speaker to other dialysis patients.
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"It would be impossible to repay every single
person who supported us during those dark days when Cole constantly
struggled with dialysis. So at least by giving to the community, I
feel it’s the best way to compensate everyone," said Chris
Kwapich, referring to her contributions as the 26th Annual Lollipop
Sale’s Publicity Chairman.
Chris has met the challenging job as head of publicity with the
same amazing zeal with which she has approached her other responsibilities.
In between teaching Cole to eat solid foods, driving him to Ann
Arbor for his weekly "well visits", taking care of her
seven-year-old daughter Courtney and four-year-old son, Hunter,
she has managed to secure Public Service Announcements on Cable
TV and to meet with Cumulus executives to firm up the details of
K100’s Shores and Steele’s live remote from Bob Evans
on the first morning of the Sale.
Additionally, Chris and Cole have
made a post surgical appearance on Channel 24’s Morning Show
with Jenny Goldberg who along with Dave Hecht will MC the Lollipop
Sale’s Kickoff Party at the Macomber Cafe. According to Chris,
getting media attention was fairly easy. For instance, Channel 24
began following Cole’s compelling story from the beginning.
"When Cole’s low
urine output didn’t increase five days after birth, an ultrasound
revealed underdeveloped, or hypoplastic kidneys. That’s when
we got hit by a brick wall," Chris said. "Our baby, Cole,
was rushed to Motts Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor where he remained
critical. So, my husband, Brian, and I lived there for the next
two months." After attempts failed to maintain him nutritionally
-- his electro-lytes were all over the map with potassium counts
of 8.0 or more -- at ten days of age he was started on peritoneal
dialysis. "This was my very worst day ever. At that point,
I wasn’t giving up. I couldn’t bare watching my child
suffer, so I put my faith in God’s hands," she added.
Once back home in Toledo, Brian and
Chris kept an exhaustive watch over Cole who was on continuous peritoneal
dialysis. Too terrified to leave him alone, they took turns sleeping
on the floor next to his crib, averaging two to three hours of sleep
a night, if that. Cole was in a constant state of agitation, he
screamed nonstop. Emergency trips to Ann Arbor became a weekly ritual
for various incidences including fluid overload, extremely high
potassium, and three catheter revisions and replacements. After
a hole in his peritoneum was finally discovered, an emergency hemodialysis
line was placed in his neck’s jugular vein and microsurgery
was performed to insert dialysis access in his leg.
At Chris’ insistence, Motts
Children's broke tradition by allowing Cole to continue on hemodialysis
until his transplant. "Once he started on hemo, his demeanor
started to change -- he started smiling and cooing which he hadn’t
done in five months -- I just couldn’t let him go back to PD.
However, even though he was a little better, his troubles were far
from over," Chris explained.
By then, Brian and Chris’ survival
skills were well honed. They kept meticulous hygiene to prevent
infection in Cole’s access site. But despite an around-the-clock
vigil, he pulled two access lines out of his chest, as all infants
on hemodialysis instinctively do. Prior to his transplant, the tenacious
child endured nineteen surgeries which included repairing the broken
seals on the two hernia operations resulting from the enormous amount
of fluid in his little scrotum.
Between the cost of driving to Ann
Arbor for both emergencies and dialysis six days a week, money was
becoming scarce especially since Chris couldn’t return to her
work as a physical therapist assistant. That’s when KF stepped
in to alleviate some of the financial burden by offering help with
the expenses. Fortunately, those trips came to a halt on November
5th of last year, when at the age of 20 months, Cole was transplanted
when it was determined that his abdominal cavity could accommodate
his Uncle Chris’ adult size kidney.
"Miraculously, our baby’s
life turned around after surgery. He was up and walking for the
first time only six days after surgery. The large kidney sticks
out of his belly a little bit, but the docs have reassured me as
he grows it will no longer show. He has adjusted well to his immunosuppression,
but those drugs have made him one hairy little baby!" Chris
commented good-naturedly. "When we watch our son, Cole, sleeping
peacefully in his crib," she added, "Brian and I still
can’t believe where we were a year ago. It’s just amazing
what the doctors and the entire Motts staff have given us and our
son." Through their experience, she and Brian have learned
to be more lenient parents. They tend to not get upset about the
little things like mud on the carpet; they’re just so grateful
to have the kids to get the carpet muddy.
~Contributed
by Jeanne Gatoura
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