A familial history of diabetes inspires nephrologist Dr. Nicole M. Ali to help patients with kidney disease like Nicole Schmidt-Dickson receive lifesaving treatments.
Photo courtesy of the patient, Nicole Schmidt-Dickson
A 45-year-old Long Island woman, who hadn’t had candy since receiving a diabetes diagnosis at age 5, turned to NYU Winthrop Hospital for kidney and pancreas transplants. “They said my organs started working immediately,” says Nicole Schmidt-Dickson, following surgery. “I wanted to go kickboxing and do things I never had the energy to do.”
“Diabetes is the No. 1 cause of kidney failure in the world,” explains Nicole M. Ali, MD, medical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program at NYU Winthrop Hospital. Patients get evaluated and screened at NYU Winthrop Hospital and go to NYU Langone Transplant Institute for the surgery.
The results: “No dialysis to go to, no blood sugar to constantly obsess about, and getting back to the life they wanted,” Dr. Ali tells the New York Daily News. “Three of my patients have had babies in the last 18 months.”
Dr. Ali reminds potential donors that “someone can live out their entire life perfectly healthy with just one kidney.”
Read more from the New York Daily News.
