Patient Stories

Firefighter Is Key to Historic Three-Way Kidney Swap

Kidney swaps enable incompatible donors to give to strangers, in return for a matched kidney that can help their own loved ones or family members. The chain of giving can start with a single altruistic donor. Thirty-nine-year-old Long Island firefighter John McGuinness recently became the lynchpin in a rare three-way kidney swap, performed at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Columbia.

Toddler Thriving a Year After Heart Transplant

Brooklyn newborn Jordan Trimarchi received a second chance at life, when an anonymous gift of a replacement heart was transplanted into his tiny body by Dr. Jan M. Quaegebeur. Exactly a year later, on January 26, 2006, Jordan was back at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. But this time he and his parents came to celebrate the child's excellent health and normal development with his doctors.

"Thank you a thousand times over." Susan Balcirak's Letter to the CLDT

"Thank you a thousand times over for your selfless commitment to medicine and to your fellow human beings," writes Susan Balcirak in a letter to the CLDT team. Her son, Dean Balcirak III, had a living donor liver transplant on March 15th of 2004. He was 7½ months old. Dean's father, Dean Balcirak II, donated a portion of his own liver for the transplant. One year post-transplant, Dean's mother writes, "Dean truly is a normal little boy. He is a good size and growing fast, a typical toddler. We look back at a picture of him before his transplant and can't believe he is the same kid."

Miracles Happen The Story of Regina Williams

"Miracles happen. I believe that how I survived liver failure was a miracle, and it continues to affect me and those around me," writes Regina Williams, a retired college teacher. Gina went into liver failure from undetected autoimmune liver disease and had a transplant in 2004. Her son, Paul Mladineo, donated a portion of his own liver for the transplant. Several years post transplant, Regina is thriving "Paul and I are doing great, livers functioning perfectly," she says.

Lisa Goetze Gets Going with Gastric Bypass Surgery

Growing up, Lisa Goetze always detested gym class. "I never liked to sweat. I believed running was pointless unless you were being chased by someone with a knife." In fact, running was never an option for Ms. Goetze. For her, the mere act of walking was a battle. Throughout her life Ms. Goetze had struggled with morbid obesity. Her world as an adult consisted of commuting from home to work, and work to home. Venturing anywhere beyond those places was rare and extremely difficult because at 550 pounds she could only stand for a limited amount of time. In 2000, Ms Goetze underwent gastric bypass surgery—a decision that changed her life, and more importantly, her attitude regarding healthy living and remaining active. Today, she is a 32-year-old full-time business professional and part-time personal trainer in Bergen County, New Jersey. After a very long and difficulty journey, she has learned to appreciate a full routine and a little sweat in her life.

Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery for Early-Stage Lung Cancer

When Leah Richter of Englewood, NJ lost her voice during the spring she was referred to an ear-nose-and-throat specialist in Englewood. "He diagnosed a reflux problem and put me on 20 mg of Prilosec. It didn't help."

A colleague then suggested that Mrs. Richter see a second ENT specialist, who noticed that her right vocal cord didn't look quite as "good" as the left. He ordered MRI and CT scans of her neck and lungs. The CT radiologist saw a lesion in her lung that was suspicious for lung cancer and referred her for a scan at Columbia Kreitchman PET Center. PET scanning is a new imaging technique used to differentiate benign from malignant tumors. Sure enough, Mrs. Richter's PET scan showed an abnormal lesion, and a needle biopsy confirmed that the lesion was malignant.