Donation_For_Others

Ocala.com | John Patton Photo: Barry Greenwalt poses for a photo with his wife, Andrea, and daughters, Sofia, 4, and Laurel, 10, at their home in Ocala on Oct. 31.Bruce Ackerman/Star-Banner Man works two jobs while waiting, caring for family The pain is most unbearable in the early morning. The alarm clock rings at 3:30 a.m. and Barry Greenwalt rubs his eyes before he gets out of bed slowly and quietly so he doesn't wake his sleeping wife, Andrea.The pain is most unbearable in the early morning. The alarm clock rings at 3:30 a.m. and Barry Greenwalt rubs his eyes before he gets out of bed slowly and quietly so he doesn't wake his sleeping wife, Andrea. With his bones sore, muscles aching, stomach churning and a confounding itching in his feet, his arms, everywhere, Greenwalt reaches the kitchen, where a cocktail of medications and vitamins await. By 4:15 a.m. he is off to a two-job workday that often lasts until close to midnight, with only a break for dinner (and more pills) b...

Douglas County Sentinel | Colton Campbell Photo: Ed Mann (gray hoodie) watches a balloon he’s released float to the sky. Mann, who lost his kidneys several years ago because of a rare autoimmune disease called scleroderma, is receiving a kidney donation from Felicia Henderson (right, in the gray jacket). The balloon release at Mt. Zion Elementary, where Mann is a PE teacher and Henderson is a teaching assistant, was held in honor of the two and to give them a proper send-off before their surgery this morning. (Photo by Colton Campbell/Times-Georgian) Standing in the parking lot of the school he’s served for 17 years, surrounded by all of Mt. Zion Elementary’s students, Edward Mann let go of a red balloon and watched it float to the sky while everyone cheered. The 40-person balloon release Thursday was to honor Mann, a physical elementary teacher at the school, and to give him a proper send-off for his trip to Atlanta Friday to receive a kidney replacement. The “one-in-a-million...

NJ.com | Susan Livio Photo: A grateful Angel Vazquez holds a heart pillow in his bed at Newark Beth Israel hospital. The native of Puerto Rico who lives in Newark received a heart transplant Wednesday night when the hospital was still without power. Surgeons at the hospital were able to perform the intricate surgery thanks to a backup generator and skilled medical help. John Munson/The Star-Ledger When the call finally came â€" and with it the prospect Angel Vazquez would live to see his 53rd birthday â€" Hurricane Sandy had already plunged most of the state into darkness. But unlike millions of other New Jerseyans, blackouts and gas shortages were not on Vazquez’s mind. On Wednesday afternoon, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center reached him by cell phone to say a donor heart was available from a young man in the Midwest. In the aftermath of the most catastrophic storm ever to strike the Garden State, the organization that recovers and places organs and tissue for transplant,...

Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune Photo: Andrea and Jeremy Waterbury. Andrea was happy to donate a life-saving kidney to her husband in April. Jeremy Waterbury knows his wife, Andrea, is the best thing that ever happened to him. “And that was before she gave me her kidney,” he says. The Waterburys and their friends will be among the hundreds of people strolling through Audubon Park Sunday morning, Nov. 4, at the 11th Annual New Orleans Kidney Walk. For them, it will be personal. “As of today, Team Waterbury has raised $815,” Jeremy says. “Last year I couldn’t do the walk because I was on dialysis.” In April 2011, when the young couple moved to New Orleans from Michigan so Jeremy could work on film production in south Louisiana, they had no idea the journey they were beginning. “Last year, when he was working on a movie in Baton Rouge, Jeremy started getting some really bad headaches, and I told him to go to the doctor,” Andrea says. The next thing she knew, he was in ...

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Bill Vidonic Photo: Dr. Beth Piraino, left More than 26 million Americans have some form of kidney disease, and just 10 percent of them know it, according to the American Society of Nephrology. In her new role as president of the National Kidney Foundation, Dr. Beth Piraino hopes to educate people about the disease and get them to think about prevention. “We want to make sure there’s an awareness of kidney disease like there is for breast cancer and mammographies, cholesterol and other illnesses. Kidney disease is very pervasive. A very high proportion of the country is at risk,” Piraino said. Piraino, 63, of Squirrel Hill is a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and the associate dean of admissions and financial aid at the university’s School of Medicine. The foundation, according to its website, works on awareness, prevention and treatment of kidney disease for hundreds of thousands of health care professionals, millions of patien...

Baltimore Sun | Mary Carole McCauley Photo: Dorry Segev, left, and Sommer Gentry, practice swing dancing in their dance studio. Their four-level Canton rowhouse is a haven for their varied interests in music, dancing, and entertaining, as well as their academic research. (Amy Davis, Baltimore Sun photo / November 6, 2012) Think of Dorry Segev and Sommer Gentry as intellectual magpies. The glittery ideas they filch from fields as diverse as swing dancing, systems analysis, water skiing and medicine seemingly have little in common. But Segev and Gentry weave them together into a strong yet flexible structure designed to protect fragile lives. Segev, 41, is a transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a pianist who studied at Juilliard and a former computer prodigy. Gentry, 35, an assistant mathematics professor at the Naval Academy, was a doctoral student when she caught the public's attention by designing a dancing robot. In addition, the couple are champion swing d...

The Liberty County Vindicator GALVESTON, Texas â€" The Texas Transplant Center at the University of Texas Medical Branch was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for stellar achievements in lung transplantation and success in increasing the number of organs available for transplantation. The Texas Transplant Center was awarded a Silver Medal for Lung Transplantation based on its performance from criteria including wait-list mortality rates after patients are listed for transplantation, transplantation rates and survival after transplantation. The Texas Transplant Center is among 44 transplant programs in the United States â€" and one of six adult lung transplantation programs overall â€" to receive this recognition. According to the HHS standards, this result places UTMB’s lung program in the top 10 percent in the nation. The Adult Lung Transplantation Program at UTMB is the only one in Texas to reach this level. In addition, UTMB is ...