LSUHN Nephrologist Efrain Reisin, MD was recognized as a “Kidney Hero” by the National Kidney Foundation of Louisiana.
The National Kidney Foundation of Louisiana honored 22 individuals whose cooperation and assistance has helped the Foundation continue its programs and goals. These celebrated honorees, “Kidney Heroes”, contributed their time, talent, and efforts, to bring ordinary notions to exceptional heights by ensuring that awareness of this life altering disease is being brought to the forefront, ensuring that prevention methods are being promoted, and assisting in raising funds for life saving treatment for those affected. Additionally, they have carried the torch of hope and aided in the fight against kidney disease.
Read the full press release here.
Dr. Reisin was honored to be name a “Kidney Hero” and responded with the following personal statement.
“I am thoroughly enjoying my tenure as the Chief of the Section of Nephrology and Hypertension at Louisiana State University Health Science Center because it has given me the opportunity to build a successful program. In our Section we champion the goals and objectives of the Kidney Foundation. We have raised awareness about kidney disease while improving prevention and treatment methodologies through our teaching, research, and clinical activities.
With great pride I have watched fifty one fellows graduated. Many of them are now my nephrology colleagues in Louisiana. I observed the lives of hundreds of chronic kidney disease patients preserved, maintained on dialysis, and improved after transplant. Through our research, we were able to introduce new approaches to the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases.
Without a doubt, the biggest challenge I have faced over the years was to rebuild the Section of Nephrology after Hurricane Katrina. We searched far and wide for our patients, only to find them scattered across the dialysis units that remained operational in our area. We opened our clinical practice and teaching programs in new hospitals that graciously opened their doors to my team. At the same time we rebuilt the clinical and bench research studies that allowed us to continue to have a successful string of work published in top Nephrology and Hypertension Journals.
A few lines of the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling have inspired our Post-Katrina comeback:
If you can watch the things you gave your life to broken. And stop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools; . . . you’ll be a Man, my son!
This effort, I recognize, would not be possible without the support of my loving wife and my children. It would not be achievable without the help of those who stayed with me after Katrina: Stephen Morse, Erwin Aguilar and Kim Adams, and for the additional support of the young and talented nephrologists that have joined our team in the last few years.
I do not believe that I am a Hero. For me the real heroes are the renal patients, and my own sister, who on dialysis battled for survival for several years.”