Katherine Anderson's estimated kidney function, abbreviated eGFR, was recently estimated at 8 milliliters per minute, a sign of severe disease. - Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
Katherine Anderson's kidneys have been going downhill for years, increasingly unable to filter her body's waste products from her blood. She is often exhausted and has no appetite, losing 20 pounds in the last year alone from her slender, 5-foot-5 1/2 frame. On Jan. 27, she finally got good news: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital placed her on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. But two months later, the 59-year-old Norristown woman, who is Black, got a follow-up message that left her confused. It said that, in the past, doctors had estimated her kidney function with a formula that in...
