It is now being tested on mice.
I woke up one morning, and my body was uncomfortable and seemed very puffy, Kleinberg recalled.
The next day it was worse.
Ken KleinbergCourtesy
I was like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fromGhostbusters.
Kleinberg had never experienced anything like this.
The swelling was water retention, he said.
My doctor sent me to a kidney specialist.
I didnt know anything about nephrology at all, but they immediately diagnosed it as a kidney malfunction.
I checked into the Keck Hospital at USC.
My calves and my lower legs were almost the size of my thigh.
Had he let the crisis linger, it might have been fatal.
You would eventually expire, he said.
They affect your heart, they control your liver, everything is impacted.
So if you get kidney failure, youre in big time trouble.
One of them wasVito Campese, his nephrologist, with whom Kleinberg would eventually form UKRO.
Said Kleinberg: I constantly asked them, what causes this?
And they would say, We dont know; the kidney is one of the least understood organs.
And that was a warning sign that trouble was around the bend.
This time, dialysis was unavoidable, because his kidneys were not filtering the toxins in his body.
I was in the hospital a straight 13 weeks, which was really a challenge, he said.
I was pretty sick for a while.
The treatments become something of a guessing game.
There is a lot of wealth here in in the medical field.
Why wasnt there more research in kidney disease?
He needed a new kidney.
He could get on a long line, or…
There are those whove found other paths to the solution, he said.
For example, they will go abroad and have a go at buy an organ.
Why dont you let me get you a kidney?
I said, how are you gonna get me a kidney?
it’s possible for you to go to India and buy a kidney.
He gave up, Kleinberg said, adding that Buchwald checked into hospice, refused dialysis, and died.
Kleinberg was more fortunate.
How can a disease that affects so many people not be the subject of intense research?
He said, Well, it isnt.
We have some research in this country and elsewhere in regard to kidney disease.
The kidney has a great multiplicity of different cells that do various functions.
UKRO was part of that, said McMahon, and their collective efforts have made the breakthrough possible.
In this case, the machine were making is incredibly complex.
Its the main filtration system of our body, the kidney.
This requires some additional approaches to the strategies hes using.
I ask McMahon, was there a particular eureka moment to get to this point?
Less of a eureka moment than the coming together of unique complimentary expertise, he said.
It was collecting all these different components together, which weve managed to do.
And that is what makes us all look at each other and say, this can really work.
Funding future
Kleinberg now hopes that Hollywood leaders can help on this next leg of the race.
Thats how these breakthroughs have been accomplished for the most part.
Part of the lesson Ive learned here is perseverance.
Click herefor more information and to donate to UKRO.
