The illness I had made it so easy to let myself become isolated because it affected my eating, something that is often connected to social activities which became more difficult to participate in as I had so easily in the past. I had to learn to overcome that tendency to withdraw from society as a [...]
Read moreOur 36-year-old son Jon Patrick Lyons suffered massive brain trauma on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 from a motorcycle accident. He was not wearing a DOT helmet; instead, it was one commonly called a “brain catcher” because it offers little to no protection. He’d sold his DOT helmet just the week before because he’d decided not [...]
Read moreI didn’t know what was wrong with me when I started bleeding internally in 1988 while working in the Alaska District, Corps of Engineers, Regulatory Office. I just knew that I was exhausted most of the time. I would have trouble breathing from simply walking across the room. I had had a bad cough. It [...]
Read moreMy name is Samantha Sloan and this is my story. In 1989 my son was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and at that time his doctor told me this was a congenital heart disease and that I myself and my husband should both be tested. I told him that my mother had just had a series [...]
Read more(PHOTO BY BETHANY BILLICK) Eleanor Westenhofer, happy and healthy after a life-saving heart transplant As baby Eleanor Westenhofer waited for a heart transplant, her parents Damon and Lindsey took turns spending the night with her at Kosair Children’s Hospital. It was Lindsey’s night when that important call came. The cardiovascular nurse-practitioner on the phone asked [...]
Read more**UPDATE** Anna received her transplant in May 2012. She is DOING GREAT! Imagine laying in bed at night, trying to scratch an itch that you can’t reach. That is what Anna Parish deals with. It is part of a liver illness that this charming little girl has lived with for all of her 11 [...]
Read moreMy husband, Mike Saylor and Tim Clark first meet at Trinity High School freshman football practice in 1979. Years later, we never imagined how our lives would intersect. In the beginning of 2009, my husband was totally healthy. Suddenly, in February, he was diagnosed in end stage renal failure. They called it IgA Nephropathy, a [...]
Read moreThe Price family of Louisville knows what it means to give the gift of life as well as what it means to receive it. Andreas Price, the youngest of the three Price children, was diagnosed at the age of 15 with chronic glomerulonephritis, a type of kidney disease whose cause is unknown. Andreas remembers the [...]
Read moreAndrew Michael Shorter was born on August 23, 1978 – the brother of two older sisters – and the last child in the family. As the only boy, he was often dubbed, “Prince Andrew” by his Grandmother & Great Grandmother. Andy was a happy child – would tell jokes, easy-going, and I have fond memories [...]
Read moreWhat would you do if you thought you had a cold with flu-like symptoms such as nausea, headaches, and fatigue? Would you call in sick to work? Stay in bed for a few days? This is exactly what Louisville native and life long resident Barbara Oliver did in 1988. “At first I didn’t think anything [...]
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