Teacher uses own transplant experience in the classroom

Teacher uses own transplant experience in the classroom
New York Teacher - October 30, 2008

Jo Anne Kleehammer of Brockport in western New York donated one of her healthy kidneys to her husband, David, a high school science teacher who has turned his transplant experience into a 'teachable moment' for students.

Jo Anne Kleehammer of Brockport in western New York donated one of her healthy kidneys to her husband, David, a high school science teacher who has turned his transplant experience into a 'teachable moment' for students.

The typical adult kidney is a mere quarter-pounder.

It packs a powerful lesson, despite its size. Just ask Brockport educator David Kleehammer, who now talks kidney-speak in the life science classes he is able to teach again.

A biology and anatomy teacher, Kleehammer never realized how much real-life experience he would be able to use in his classroom. That is, until his own ailing body was opened up, a healthy kidney donated by his wife, Jo Anne, was surgically implanted near his hip, and both procedures were filmed for education and science.

A member of the Brockport Teachers Association, Kleehammer has already worked his experience into his high school lesson plans, which fits nicely into the state curriculum requirement for the topic of transplant.

"We do research projects in the lab and in the library related to transplants, particularly rejection and the immune system," he said. He also talks to students about organ donation.

The pair of kidneys found in humans are essential to removing water and waste, and producing hormones. If one goes bad, the other can do double duty -- unless marred by disease, scarring or injury.

If so, then decisions need to be made: medication, dialysis, transplant. This western New York teacher made his choice in the name of science -- and his own health, of course.

As a candidate for a transplant, Kleehammer was asked to do something to educate others about organ donation and transplant.

Kleehammer's thought was "Why not go big? Why not offer the surgeons the opportunity to tape the whole procedure?"

While he and his wife lay side by side in the operating theater at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, each of their procedures was filmed during the four-hour surgeries.

One of her four-inch kidneys was removed and placed in the front of his abdomen, where his hip meets his leg.

The surgical film is at Strong Memorial's Life Science Learning Center, part of the University of Rochester, where Kleehammer also works writing student curriculum for future teachers. Doctors there will be seeking funding to edit and produce a film that can be used to educate high school students, patients and physicians, Kleehammer said.

For most of his life, he lived unknowingly with one kidney. The discrepancy was noticed in a routine physical 10 years ago, and he began a regimen of medicine to boost his remaining kidney, which was already low-functioning.

Eventually, the kidney functioned below 20 percent because of scarring. Wanting to explore transplant possibilities, he began looking for a donor.

Although many colleagues and friends signed up to be tested, there proved to be no place like home:

His wife, a secretary in the Rochester School District, was a match, as were two of his four children.

"It's unheard of," he said. "I met my wife in church when we were 16. Talk about meant to be together!"

Until getting the transplant in August 2007, Kleehammer had been struggling with classic signs of kidney failure: decreased energy, swelling of ankles and calves and bone pain.

To see if he was a candidate for a transplant, he had to undergo a year of testing; his wife had eight months of tests.

Now back to work full-time, Kleehammer has to remain vigilant in his health care and exposure to illness.

"I love what I do," he said, noting his students have a 100 percent pass rate on the Living Environment Regents.

-- Liza Frenette

http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_11393.htm