Small, cheerful, and jam-packed with energy, Mackenzie Hooker doesn’t immediately come across as a child who’s been in and out of the operating room since the day she was born. This 12-year-old has a lot more to do than think about her kidneys—she’s a cheerleader, a lover of makeup, and a YouTube fan. Plus, right…
After a 48-year career, transplant nurse Gigi Spicer finally retired in the spring. That lasted for 20 days. “I got a call from Tulane saying they knew I retired and asking if I wanted to take up an interim position helping to rebuild their transplant institute,” she said. “It’s an interim position though; I do…
For Wallace Green, prevention would have made all the difference. “I had kidney disease at a very young age and of course, I wasn’t aware of it,” said Wallace, now 64 and a two-time kidney recipient. “It wasn’t until my kidneys started to fail that I knew there was a problem.” In his retirement, the…
A good friend gives you what you need when you need it. A great friend accepts that rule with no limitations. Mary Stokes has such a friend in Heather Cordasco, and that friendship saved one life and inspired countless others. When Mary’s persistent kidney disease took a sharp turn for the worse in 2016, she…
They say that the things you go through make you stronger. For David Edmondson, Meghan Hodgins, and their daughter, Kyndall, this strength would double, then triple, and then prove to be a seemingly indestructible force against whatever life could throw at them. And life has thrown a lot their way. Kyndall, now 18 years old,…
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