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Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 46
NOVEMBER 19,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Beeper Never Turned Off
Duke P.A. Links Kidneys with Patients
By David Williamson
Thirteen-year-old Janice Maness
of Greensboro, N.C., has four cats,
three dogs and a myna bird named
Daffy that started saying "ribbet,
ribbet" after watching the movie
“Frogs" on television.
The seventh grader has long red
hair, blue eyes and a smile that
would turn Jimmy Carter green with
envy.
She collects pennies, stuffed
animals and friends, likes fishing
and softball and wrinkles her nose at
the thought of math homework.
You could say the little girl is
normal in every respect.
Except one.
Janice has only one kidney, and
even that vital organ used to belong
to someone else.
Six years ago, her own kidneys
stopped cleaning her blood of
chemical waste products. Before her
condition was diagnosed, she almost
died from kidney failure.
Couldn't Run and Play
"I got so 1 couldn't run and play,
and I felt kind of sick all the time,"
she said. "1 could hit a ball, but 1
couldn't run the bases, and I didn't
want to go to school."
Last fall, when Janice's body
rejected the kidney sh'e received
from her mother five years ago in an
operation, the little girl got a new one
here through the efforts of a surgical
transplant team and a 13-state,
computer-linked network known as
the South Eastern Organ
Procurement Foundation (SEOPF).
As transplant coordinator of
kidney transplantation programs at
both Duke and the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill,
Physician's Associate Mike Phillips
is piedmont North Carolina's most
active member of this
kidney-sharing organization.
More Nearly Normal
Phillips, 30, likes to count himself
among a growing number of health
professionals who are trying to
reduce the grim toll of kidney
disease and offer people like Janice
Maness hope of a more nearly
complete, normal life.
A large part of his job is to secure
kidneys from patients who have died
from other causes so that surgeons at
Duke, North Carolina Memorial
Hospital in Chapel Hill and other
major hospitals in the southeastern
United States can transplant them
into kidney patients who are
surviving on dialysis machines.
"This beeper is never turned off,"
he said, indicating a small blue
receiving device that looks like a
transistor radio clipped to his belt. "1
carry it just about all the time, and
when I don't, our technician John
Sampson does."
Kidney Beeper
Phillips said that when the beeper
puts out its signal, it tells its wearer
that at a com.munity hospital
somewhere in Nqrth Carolina,
suitable kidneys may soon be
available for transplantation.
He or Sampson then travel there in
a specially equipped, state-funded
(Continued on page 3)
'TLL BE LATE FOR DINNER AGAIN, DMR"—Physician's
Associate Mike Phillips, on call 24 hours a day, spans the state
to collect kidneys for life-saving transplantation operations. He
also speaks to dozens of citizens groups across North Cdrolina
to promote organ donation. (Photo by Thad Sparks)
Science, Football on Davison Club Agenda
SHOWING HOW IT WORKS —
Technician John Sampson demonstrates
how kidneys are kept functioning while
being transported from donor to
recipient. (Photo by John Becton)
Talks entitled "The Pharmacology
of Depression" and "Breakthroughs
in Cancer" and the Duke-Carolina
football game will highlight the
annual business session and
scientific programs of the medical
center's Davison Club being held
here today and Saturday.
The Davison Club is a donor
organization whose members each
pledge at least $1,000 annually to the
School of Medicine.
Dr. H. Keith Brodie, professor and
chairman of the Department of
IJsychiatry, will present his talk on
the relation between body chemistry
and depression at 9 a.m. on Saturday
at the Governor's Inn.
Dr. William W. Shingleton, chief of
the. Division of General Surgery and
director of the Comprehensive
Cancer Center, will follow Brodie at
10 a.m. with a report on progress in
cancer research.
The weekend, including a
reception tonight and a lunch and
dinner on Saturday, is the medical
center's way of thanking the donors
for their support, according to R. C.
(Bucky) Waters, executive director of
the group and assistant to the vice
president for health affairs.
The club was founded in 1969 to
honor the late Dr. Wilburt C
Davison, first dean of medicine al
Duke, Waters said. One hundred
thirty of the group's 185 members are
expected to attend the event.
Current Davison Club officers are
Dr. Frederick H. Taylor of Charlotte
(M.D. '45), president; Dr. Karl C.
Jonas of Washington, D.C. (M.D.
'44), vice president; and Dr. Norman
H. Garrett Jr. of Greensboro ('45,
M.D. '50), secretary.