Architecture student faces kidney
dialysis, transplants, but focuses on the positive
When
Marcos rocks out with his band, he may seem like any other
21-year-old. But this young architecture student has had more
challenges than most people three times his age – and he’s managed to
design a bright future for himself.
Marcos was born with prune belly syndrome,
also known as Eagle-Barrett syndrome, a rare disorder that affects the
kidneys and other organs. He had bladder surgery when he was only 2
years old. Then, when he was in eighth grade, he had a kidney
transplant.
Five years later, when he was a freshman in
college, Marcos lost the kidney to chronic rejection and learned he
needed another transplant. He was having back pain, and when
physicians investigated the cause, they discovered a cancerous tumor in
his liver. The transplant had to be postponed, and Marcos underwent a
complex surgery that removed part of his liver. He missed an entire
year of his architecture studies.
After his surgery to remove the tumor,
Marcos had to return to dialysis for two years to make sure it would
not come back before his next transplant. This fall, Marcos hopes to
have another kidney transplant. However, he realizes a transplant is
not a cure, and he faces a lifelong need for dialysis and
transplant.
“The doctors are great here,” he says. “And
I really like the atmosphere, especially when you’re an inpatient.
Other hospitals are so depressing.”
Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Marcos
has dialysis for three hours. The dialysis room is a large, open
space, filled with activity, children, parents, doctors, nurses and
other staff. Marcos says none of it bothers him, that he enjoys
watching the activity and talking to people.
Marcos chose architecture as his career path
when he was in high school. While taking a computer-aided drafting
class, he – purely by chance he says -- entered a citywide competition
and won second place. Close behind was admittance to the University of
Houston’s summer architecture program for high school students and the
/Web/50yearsning of a keen interest in architecture.
Although Marcos’ health problems have slowed
his study schedule – it has taken three years to finish one and a half
years of the curriculum – he keeps his eye on the prize. After
graduation, he hopes to design houses, and he is looking forward to
someday owning an architecture firm.
When Marcos isn’t studying or playing with
his brother and their friends in a band, he likes to play soccer and
paintball, and read.
Marcos is looking forward to his next kidney
transplant. If the timing is right, he will be back in the classroom
by the spring semester and back on track to the future.
To
read other stories about Texas Children's patients, visit
Kids Courageous.
Texas Children’s Hospital
Renal Service – one of the largest and busiest centers in
the nation – treats infants, children and adolescents from
around the globe for the entire spectrum of renal disorders,
including urinary tract infections, congenital renal
disorders, hereditary renal disease, nephritis, renal
tubular diseases, nephritic syndrome and cystic diseases, as
well as proteinuria, hematuria and hypertension.
Each
year, Texas Children’s renal service
treats an average of 50 patients
requiring maintenance dialysis, and some
15 new patients initiate treatment.
Approximately half receive hemodialysis
at the hospital, totaling some 850
treatments per month. The remaining 25
to 30 patients receive home peritoneal
dialysis, accounting for approximately
750 to 900 treatments monthly.
The
service has an active transplant program
with a three-year graft survival rate of
84.2 percent -- the best in Texas. Some
10 to 15 new renal transplants are
performed each year.
Facts
about the Texas Children's renal
service:
More
than 60 percent of nurses are
nephrology-certified – the highest level
in the nation.
Sixty to
70 acute dialysis and CRRT treatments
are performed each month for patients
throughout the hospital, including the
intensive care, neonatal intensive care
and cardiac intensive care units.
More than
$750,000 in research grants was received
in the past three years for renal
research.
14-station
state-of-the-art dialysis
unit for patients with end-state renal
disease (ESRD) receiving maintenance
hemodialysis; dedicated adjoining clinic
space for peritoneal dialysis program.
Multidisciplinary patient-oriented care
approach that utilizes the expertise of
physicians, nurses, child-life
specialists, social workers, dietitians
and technicians, many of whom are
leaders in their fields.
When
Marcos rocks out with his band, he may seem like any other
21-year-old. But this young architecture student has had more
challenges than most people three times his age – and he’s managed to
design a bright future for himself. 
More
than 60 percent of nurses are
nephrology-certified – the highest level
in the nation.