Dialysis derails teen's life

Dialysis derails teen's life

Hoping for a new kidney

By Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:04/09/2007 12:24:40 AM MDT

Kayla Burns should be enjoying her sophomore year at Juan Diego High School.
Instead, she's hooked up to a dialysis machine at University Hospital, where she spends three mornings a week having toxic substances gleaned from her blood.
For people like Kayla, who have end-stage kidney failure, dialysis is a life saver, removing waste from their blood when the kidneys can't. And a growing number of people are in need of it.
Last year alone, 640 patients underwent 100,000 dialysis procedures through University Hospital, which has 11 dialysis centers throughout the Intermountain region, said hospital spokesman Phil Sahm.
Formerly conjoined twin Maliyah Herrin used to be one of them. But the 5-year-old was freed from dialysis Tuesday, when she received her mother's right kidney in a successful transplant at Primary Children's Medical Center. Her mother, Erin Herrin, was discharged Sunday. Both Herrins are doing well, said hospital spokesman Bonnie Midget.
Kayla is still waiting.
On a recent morning at University Hospital, she is one of several youngsters getting dialysis. Their stations are separated by white curtains. Most are watching the flat-screen TV monitors mounted from the ceiling in front of them.
Lying on a bed, Kayla has an upper left arm spotted with black and blue bruises, places where nurses unsuccessfully tried to insert the two needles she needs for dialysis.
Blood exits Kayla's body through one tube, and goes through the dialysis machine - nicknamed "Mikey" by staff - then returns to her body via another tube, she explains.
Hemodialyis, the kind of dialysis Kayla receives, works by circulating her blood through special filters, according to the National Institutes of Health. The blood flows across a semi-permeable membrane - the dialyzer or filter - along with solutions that help remove toxins.
"If they take off too much fluid it can make you feel sick," she said.
The chemical imbalances and impurities of the blood are corrected, and the blood is returned to the body. The process can take up to four hours and is typically done three times a week.
"I'm kind of used to it," she said of the dialysis. "It's kind of better than staying at home, especially with a little sister running around," she quipped.
Kayla's troubles began in September, when she began feeling weak, tired and sick to her stomach. For reasons doctors have been unable to explain, she said, her once-healthy kidneys became only 10 percent functional.
Now home schooled to accommodate her dialysis schedule, Kayla misses being in a classroom and seeing her friends.
Instead of playing sports or rehearsing for a school production, she spends most of her time watching TV, working on homework assignments or playing with her two dogs, Goldie and Missy.
"I'm kind of adjusted," she said. "I'm lazy now."
In addition to the dialysis, Kayla takes a cocktail of 13 medications, including immune suppressants, steroids and blood pressure pills. All together, her treatments cost about $10,000 a month, not all of which is covered by her parents' insurance company, she said.
Kayla hopes she'll find a kidney donor - and soon. Family members are being tested to see if their organs would work, but so far no one is a good match.
She is now one of 134 Utahns on the waiting list for a new kidney.
About 95,000 people in the country are on a waiting list for a new organ, said Alex McDonald, director of Intermountain Donor Services. Of those, 71,000 need a kidney, he said.
Most will remain on dialysis until their transplant surgeries. The large number of patients receiving dialysis underscores the need for more organ donors, he said.
"Seventy-one thousand people are a lot of people," McDonald said, "but if we could get 71,000 people across the U.S. to donate a kidney, statistically, that number is very small."
lrosetta@sltrib.com

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