Willcox native with PKD in need of kidney transplant

[okarol]

Willcox native with PKD in need of kidney transplant

By Carol Broeder\Arizona Range News
3-7-07

Willcox native Billy Diehl is now on a kidney transplant list and is in need of a donor.

He is currently having dialysis at home. Billy has completed the transplant evaluation and it is 'all go' for the transplant, his wife Bonnie told the Range News.

She told his story last year to the Range News to inform the Willcox community about Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), the world's most common life-threatening genetic disease.

Bonnie is caring for her husband, who didn't find out he has PKD until about seven years ago, at the age of 48.

The disease affects one in every 500 people, according to the PKD Foundation.

That's more than Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, and Huntington's disease combined.

Common symptoms of PKD include high blood pressure, constant or intermittent pain in the back and side of the stomach, blood in the urine, kidney stones, frequent urinary tract infections, and a family history of kidney problems, heart problems or stroke.

Those who do inherit PKD develop fluid-filled cysts on both kidneys. Over time, these cysts grow bigger and multiply, often leading to kidney failure.

While a normal kidney is about the size of a human fist, PKD kidneys can grow to be the size of a football or larger, and weigh as much as 38 pounds each.

Fifty-five-year-old Billy Diehl is a Willcox native, the son of Walter and Maybelle Diehl, who owned the Shell Gas Station at 590 N. Haskell Ave.

He was a Sunday School teacher and AWANA leader at First Baptist Church for many years, Bonnie said.

Billy worked for Peck Bethel at the old Texaco station when he was 16 years old, for Tommy Wilson for seven years from 1974 to 1981, and then farmed with Floyd Robbs from 1982 until 2001, Bonnie said.

After that, he went to work for Cross Spear Marble, Inc., which provided not only an income, but also much-needed medical insurance, until he had to stop working last March.

Within 30 days of going into renal failure, Billy had his left kidney removed May 19 and immediately began dialysis. The couple moved to Benson at that time.

The Diehls have four grown children, two of whom have PKD and cannot be donors themselves.

Billy wants the other two children to save their kidneys in case their siblings need them later on, Bonnie told the Range News last year.

The couple also has seven grandchildren.

A checking account has been opened at Chase Bank for those wishing to donate.

For further information on kidney donation, call University Medical Center in Tucson at (520) 694-0111 or (520) 694-6827.

url: http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/articles/2007/03/06/news/news6.txt