11 Feb 2009 03:00 AM
Dialysis-or-Death Play Who Lives? To Feature Transplant Recipient
Who Lives?, a morally complex play chronicling the 1960's anonymous citizens committee who determined the life-or-death fate of kidney patients applying for dialysis, will feature veteran stage actor and two-time kidney transplant recipient R. Martin "Bob" Klein, along with other renal patient-actors.
Klein, diagnosed with lupus at 19, plays "Baxter," a cantankerous, opinionated member of the selection committee who eschews authority. At 43, side-effects of the lupus necessitated Klein's first transplant, utilizing a kidney from a 12-year-old Long Island boy. After rejecting that organ a few years later, Klein says he was "divinely blessed" with a second kidney, donated by the family of an Ohio man who was a perfect match. He says he has been "relatively healthy" ever since.
Who Lives? is the story of one man, Gabriel Hornstein, facing death due to end-stage renal disease, and his struggle to overcome a system of determining who lives, and who dies, in order to save his own life. What he uncovers in the process is an imperfect system riddled with decision-making challenges that are relatable in not just healthcare and bioethics, but in all aspects of modern society.
"It's hard for people to understand in real terms what end-stage renal patients have to deal with," says Klein. "Gabriel is a seeker of knowledge who has to learn how to navigate the minefield of this horrible disease. That's exactly the way it was for me." Klein says the more awareness Who Lives? raises, the more it fuels forward motion. He hopes that seeing Who Lives? will help people gain "a deeper perspective that they can apply to their own medical challenges."
That's exactly what Renal Support Network (RSN) Founder and President Lori Hartwell hopes. A kidney disease survivor and transplant recipient herself, Hartwell says, "Having lived with kidney disease for over 40 years, I am humbled by the difficult circumstances people with kidney failure have to endure, and I am eager to bring this play to life in their honor…
Klein, diagnosed with lupus at 19, plays "Baxter," a cantankerous, opinionated member of the selection committee who eschews authority. At 43, side-effects of the lupus necessitated Klein's first transplant, utilizing a kidney from a 12-year-old Long Island boy. After rejecting that organ a few years later, Klein says he was "divinely blessed" with a second kidney, donated by the family of an Ohio man who was a perfect match. He says he has been "relatively healthy" ever since.
Who Lives? is the story of one man, Gabriel Hornstein, facing death due to end-stage renal disease, and his struggle to overcome a system of determining who lives, and who dies, in order to save his own life. What he uncovers in the process is an imperfect system riddled with decision-making challenges that are relatable in not just healthcare and bioethics, but in all aspects of modern society.
"It's hard for people to understand in real terms what end-stage renal patients have to deal with," says Klein. "Gabriel is a seeker of knowledge who has to learn how to navigate the minefield of this horrible disease. That's exactly the way it was for me." Klein says the more awareness Who Lives? raises, the more it fuels forward motion. He hopes that seeing Who Lives? will help people gain "a deeper perspective that they can apply to their own medical challenges."
That's exactly what Renal Support Network (RSN) Founder and President Lori Hartwell hopes. A kidney disease survivor and transplant recipient herself, Hartwell says, "Having lived with kidney disease for over 40 years, I am humbled by the difficult circumstances people with kidney failure have to endure, and I am eager to bring this play to life in their honor…
