Letter to The Editor

To the Editor:

Donating a kidney to someone in need is simple… and yet complicated. The simple part is that we are each born with two kidneys, but can live long and healthy lives with only one. When someone’s kidneys fail, the gift of a healthy third kidney gives them the boost they need to avoid dialysis and resume an active life. Why not share?

When a friend went on the kidney

transplant wait list at Swedish Hospital in

Seattle,  I applied to be a living kidney donor for her. I had a telephone interview in November and lab tests at Wrangell Medical Center during December and January. All costs were covered by the transplant program. At every step of the process I was told I could back out at any time. I had frequent contact with a donor program nurse to answer any questions. I recently went to Swedish Hospital for a two-day evaluation. My travel and lodging costs were covered. All my tests looked great, until a CT scan raised a couple of minor issues. A nephrologist kindly sat me down to explain that I should not donate. I am disappointed.... but I can still help by encouraging others to become donors.

The life expectancy of kidneys donors parallels the general population. The surgery results in recuperation time and annual followups, but the compensation is the lifelong satisfaction of having given such a precious gift. 

The friend who was my designated kidney recipient, Anchorage Episcopal priest and counselor Gayle Nauska, now needs to find a donor.  So do 95,000 other Americans.  Many will die before they receive one. A transplant from a live donor is more successful than from a cadaver. Search ‘Swedish Hospital Kidney Transplant’ for online information and links to an application form. Contact me as well. I’ll be happy to provide more information.

Alice Rooney

Sea otter creating imbalance

To the Editor:

The reintroduction of the sea otter has created an imbalance of human resources and sea life.

A much larger impact is looming: Before the sea otters reintroduction to Southeast Alaska’s Archipelago, fishermen fished all types of fish and crustaceans but find themselves now regulated nearly out of business while the reintroduced sea otters continue to ravage the shallow bottoms of all estuaries of Southeast.

I can assure that within the next ten years, without proper regulation and control of this predator of crustaceans, the sea otter will be the cause of its own demise.

The sea otter will reach the Petersburg boat harbor inside of ten years and the damage they leave behind will be done.

The recovery time of the crustaceans will only begin when control of the otter begins, only if not too little too late.

When the sea otter reaches Petersburg and Wrangell, subsistence crabbing will be no more. Believe me they are coming. I have watched the sea otter go from the outside coast to within the south entrance of Wrangell Narrows. Meaning in forty years they have multiplied fifty times and moved inland fifty miles or more.

As a commercial salmon troller I boast to have provided the finest table salmon in the world. I have quietly idled up and down the shores of southeast Alaska’s archipelago observing animal habits and behavior and that they are many as they adapt to changes.

However, there is a change coming that will adversely impact all, but to all, not good. Fishermen are at a loss and the poor sea otter will be the cause of its own demise through starvation and disease and is a horrible way to die.

If we see this and do the right thing in the most humane way all will be well but time is running out.

Kenneth A. Goldsbury