Boston patient doing well after first successful pig kidney transplant
Richard Slayman, a 62-year-old man who has end-stage renal disease, is the first patient to receive a kidney transplant from a pig successfully.
“Real Housewives of New York City” alumna Bethenny Frankel is encouraging people to “be mindful” about their health as she reveals a recent medical diagnosis.
The 55-year-old entrepreneur shared in a video posted to Instagram on Thursday, Jan. 22, that a doctor diagnosed her with stage 2 chronic kidney disease after blood work regularly showed low kidney function.
“Maybe this is something I’ll have to deal with this forever,” she said. “But I just wanted to tell you because I think it’s important to get all your blood work done.”
Despite wanting to “punt” the appointment with a kidney specialist, she went at the urging of her team – and ended up with the diagnosis, Frankel explained.
Frankel said her doctor could not attribute the diagnosis to a specific cause and mused that some clues might be found in the “traumatic experience I had years ago when I almost died from an allergy attack” that could have damaged her kidneys, or her prior predisposition to urinary tract infections. She also struggles to stay hydrated and experiences low blood pressure, she said.
In 2018, Frankel was hospitalized after she consumed soup that made her itchy, then knocked her unconscious. She revealed at the time that she had a “rare fish allergy.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Frankel’s rep for more information.
The reality star said she was sharing the news “not because I want you to worry, because I want you to take precautions in your own life, be mindful,” Frankel said, encouraging her followers to get bloodwork done regularly.
Stage 2 of chronic kidney disease is characterized by “mild loss of kidney function,” according to Mayo Clinic.
What is chronic kidney disease?
With chronic kidney disease, damaged kidneys “gradually lose their ability to filter waste, toxins, and extra water from the blood,” Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, previously explained to USA TODAY.
The most common causes of CKD are high blood pressure and diabetes, “which damage the small blood vessels and filtering units in the kidneys over time,” says Nagata. Other potential causes he points to include immune system disorders or recurrent kidney infections.
In the early stages of the disease, this can result in mild symptoms such as reduced appetite or feelings of fatigue, but as CKD progresses, “complications like high blood pressure, heart disease, anemia, nerve damage, and fluid retention can arise,” says Nagata. “Without treatment, chronic kidney disease can lead to end-stage kidney failure, which is fatal without dialysis or a kidney transplant.”
In the United States, more than 1 in 7 (about 35.5 million) people have CKD, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The department also estimates that “as many as 9 in 10 adults with CKD do not know they have it.” The chronic disease causes more deaths each year than breast cancer or prostate cancer, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Contributing: Daryl Austin, USA TODAY
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