Transplant surgeon has someone else's kidney
Editor's note: In the Human Factor, we profile survivors who have overcome the odds. Confronting a life obstacle -- injury, illness or other hardship -- they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn't know they possessed. This week we introduce you Dr. Silke Niederhaus, a transplant surgeon who has a very personal connection to the patients she operates on.
(CNN) -- The first few years of my life were quite uneventful. But during the summer after my second grade year, I became ill with a sore throat. A few weeks after I was diagnosed with kidney failure.
At the time, it felt like a death sentence to me and my parents.
For the next three years, my life became preoccupied with daily medications, blood pressure checks, weekly blood draws and many hospital admissions and procedures.
I continued to attend school as I was able and with great interest began to study the human body -- anatomy and physiology especially. I learned everything I could about kidneys and dialysis and, later, the immune system.
At 11 years old, my kidneys completely shut down, and I began peritoneal dialysis. I was one of the younger patients to perform this type of dialysis on myself, as it requires learning sterile techniques.
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