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Show Kidney transplant means new life for PG girl she thinks that it will help make her a better nurse. She said, "I think I can relate to sick people better and feel like I know what they're going through." Recently, another member of the family was diagnosed as having the disease. Seven-year-old Kristen has lost about 50 percent of her kidney functions and will be faced with a transplant operation in two or three years. There are three compatible donors in the family so the chances for success are excellent and with the positive attitude and good example of older sister Linda, the story is bound to have a happy ending. :t By GARY LEONARD Not many people with serious illnesses are able to get a new lease life, but Linda Fralick, of Pleasant Grove, was lucky - not nee, but twice. Linda discovered she had kidney disease at age 14 has since undergone two transplant operations to correct the disease. Kidney disease affects thousands if Americans and is a progressive fease that slowly destroys the kidney functions. There is only one Me and that is a transplant. The ""ly other alternative is continued Wysis treatment on an artificial kidney machine. When first diagnosed as having e disease, Linda didn't realize the seriousness of it. In fact, she in-ed in-ed to her mother that she was 'ig just fine. Doctors said that e had been ill from such a young that she didn't really know that could feel any differently. tjnda was given the choice of is or finding a donor for a transplant and according to her mother, there was no question about e didn't even consider jj's," she said, "With such a ,rf family we were sure we would a compatible donor. " 111e whole family was tested and as determined that Linda's po, iT' Susan, was the only one who donate a kidney. Both girls re admitted to the University of Medical Center and after a ""tour operation Linda had a new taii!' Unfortunately, after two C ' the kidney failed and had to removed. Linda took the news of the rejection in stride, but her sister, Susan, was very upset about it. "I really felt guilty about the rejection, I felt like I had done something wrong," Susan said. "The family tried to joke about it to cheer me up, but it really hurt me." With no other eligible donor, there was no choice except to go on dialysis. She started treatment at a center in Midvale and later transferred to the U of U dialysis center in Provo. For four hours a day, three days a week Linda was hooked up to a machine that would filter and purify her blood. The process is exhausting and after receiving a treatment she would return home and spend the remainder of the day resting. In addition to that, she was required to take 25 to 30 pills a day and have regular blood transfusions to replace the blood lost during dialysis. During all this time her activities didn't change very much. She still participated in choir and pep club at school and al of her school friends supported her. The school once had a blood drive and ask students to donate for the general blood reserves. Linda's friends spread the word about her need for transfusions and the school ended up with over a hundred pints of blood donated in her name. These treatments continued for four years and Linda says she didn't think much about another transplant tran-splant at first but after talking with a social worker she decided to be put on a waiting list for another kidney. With a usual waiting time for a transplant of over a year she was again lucky. In just six months time a suitable donor was found and Linda was admitted to Ihe hospital for her second operation. "I just knew the second transplant tran-splant would work," she said, "I didn't even consider the possibility that it could fail." When asked about the donor, the family says that they know only that it was a young boy about her age who was in a fatal accident. No personal information is ever divulged about donors or their families. Thanks to a drug called cyclosporene, which reduces the number of factors needed to make an organ compatible, the operation was successful. Linda now leads a normal life and no longer needs dialysis treatments or blood transfusions. The medication she takes is down from 25 to 30 pills a day to only four a day, and even though there is still a chance her body may reject the kidney, she doesn't concern herself with the thought. Currently, Linda is pursuing a career in nursing and will graduate next spring from Utah Technical College as an LPN. She than plans to work for the University of Utah while completing her degree. Will she work in dialysis? "I may consider working in dialysis sometime in the future, but my first choice is pediatrics," she says. Having kidney disease didn't influence her to become a nurse, but h ' : '. , . . , I i : - J r - ' I-' . . sw' 1 I v i. . .' ,f ' t I ' Left to right, Linda Fralick, transplant recipient, her younger sister, Kristen, who now faces the same operation; and sister, Susan, who donated a kidney for Linda's first transplant. |
