AAKP's Pediatric Kidney Pals - April 2018
Why I'm a Pediatric Kidney Patient Advocate
Jim Myers (right) with his son
You don't have to be a parent of a child who has kidney disease or have been someone with pediatric kidney disease to be an advocate for this population.  AAKP Board of Director's member, Ambassador for the state of Indiana and contributing editor of AAKP's Pediatric Kidney Pals e-newsletter, Jim Myers, has a heart for kidney kids.  He was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1983, he was 25 years old.  Jim was told at the time that he was young to have that diagnosis.  Now, having lived with kidney disease for more than 35 years, he advocates for those suffering from this condition, and he especially advocates for kids.

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In This Issue
It's National Pediatric Transplant Week!          
 
Launching this week, April 23 - 27, 2018, as part of National Donate Life Month, National Pediatric Transplant Week offers donation and transplantation organizations the platform to talk about the powerful message of ending the pediatric waiting list, to engage clinical partners to share their innovative work and patient stories (candidates and recipients), and to honor donor families whose children have saved and healed lives through organ, eye, and tissue donation.
  
National Pediatric Transplant Week gives pediatric donor and recipient families an opportunity to share their stories, encourage others to help save and heal lives by registering to be organ, eye and tissue donors and to learn more about becoming a living donor.

Click here to read more about National Pediatric Transplant Week.

PATIENT SPOTLIGHT:  Our Top 3 Picks for Inspiring News Articles about Young Patients
 
 
 
 
Click on the article titles to read these amazing stories.  Do you have an inspiring story?  Share it with AAKP by clicking below.

PREVENTION SPOTLIGHT: Kids with regular health care less likely to have life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis
 
"Having a regular primary care provider was associated with a reduced risk of DKA at diabetes onset, but this protection reached statistical significance only among those 12-17 years of age," writes Dr. Meranda Nakhla, Montreal Children's Hospital and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, with coauthors. "Adolescents who had a regular family physician or pediatrician were 31% less likely or 38% less likely, respectively, to present with DKA relative to those without regular primary care."
 
The researchers looked at data on 3704 children with newly diagnosed diabetes over the study period from 2006 to 2015. The mean age at diagnosis was 10 years and about 27% (996 children) presented with diabetic ketoacidosis at time of diagnosis. About 59% (2177 children) had a regular primary care provider before diagnosis. Children of lower socioeconomic status or living in small cities were more likely to have a diabetic ketoacidosis episode at diagnosis of diabetes than those of higher socioeconomic status or those living in urban areas.

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