Iowa City woman wins online dialysis contest

[okarol]

December 21. 2007 12:28PM
Iowa City woman wins online dialysis contest
The Gazette

IOWA CITY — Jenna Smith, 21, of Iowa City, won an online "Kidney Dialysis Idol" contest to go on an Alaskan cruise.

The University of Iowa engineering and art major was one of 2,000 people nominated for the contest, which was decided by online voting.

DaVita Inc., a national dialysis company that sponsored the contest, announced this week that Smith had won.

Smith's kidneys were destroyed by a rare disease known as MPGN II. She undergoes dialysis six times weekly at University Hospitals.

Her father, Dr. Richard Smith, vice chairman of the UI Department of Otolaryngology, gave her one of his kidneys when Jenna was 15, but the disease recurred, she lost the transplant and returned to dialysis.

Smith beat out a son with Downs Syndrome who learned how to help with his father's dialysis, and two other finalists.