Hospital Tailors Kidney Transplant To Protect Teen Baseball Player’s Swing–Putting It On Other Side Of His Body

Hospital Tailors Kidney Transplant To Protect Teen Baseball Player’s Swing–Putting It On Other Side Of His Body

Hospital Tailors Kidney Transplant To Protect Teen Baseball Player’s Swing–Putting It On Other Side Of His Body Sam Heintz – Credit: Corewell Health It was a parent’s worst nightmare, but doctors showed extra compassion for the patient who had dreams of being a baseball player when he grows up. Five-year-old Sam Heintz was in the intensive care unit of Michigan’s Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital with failing kidneys and a grim diagnosis. He had a rare life-threatening disease (atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome) that produces blood clots in the kidney that can eventually lead to organ failure. The little kid who loved baseball would need a kidney transplant if he ever hoped to play again. Fortunately, the next bounce of life fell in Sam’s favor when, at eight years old, the hospital located an organ donor. Sam was a getting a new kidney. But the baseball player was a left-handed batter—so the family made a special request. Typically, kidneys are transplanted into the lower right side of the …