ULTIMATE SUCCESS AT BATTLING KIDNEY FAILURE.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - It was 1968 when 2-year-old Lori Hartwell's kidneys failed and doctors told her mother the chances of survival were scant.

In a Las Vegas hospital, the doctor spoke frankly: ``You can put her on an altar and pray or you can sign this sheet and let me try everything,'' recalled Hartwell's mother, Marlene DeCenzo.

DeCenzo did what any desperate mother would do: She signed the papers and prayed.

About 35 years - and surgeries - later, Hartwell has just published her first book, ``Chronically Happy: Joyful Living in Spite of Chronic Illness.''

The Glendale resident runs her own company, Hartwell Communications, and travels the country lecturing on renal disease, the life-threatening kidney ailment that has not stopped her from living out her dreams. She is a two-time U.S. Transplant Games Ping-Pong gold medalist, publishes the top renal disease Web site in the country (www.ikidney.com) and, in 2000, was appointed to Gov. Gray Davis' Rehabilitation Advisory Council.

Through it all, Hartwell developed philosophies on how to live fully, whether you're sick or not.

``Death is certain in life, but in the meantime you have to be as happy and productive as possible,'' Hartwell said Friday as her African gray parrot, Johnny, repeated selected phrases intermittently, showing off his 300-word vocabulary.

``Adversity introduces you to yourself,'' Hartwell added. Johnny stayed quiet.

Dr. David Ward, an expert in the field of nephrology who has seen thousands of cases of kidney failure, is as amazed by Hartwell's medical perseverance battling renal disease as he is by her unwavering drive and leadership in helping medical professionals understand renal patients and helping patients cope with the often debilitating illness.

``Lori is one of the most amazing young women I've ever met - it's unbelievable how much she's been able to do,'' said Ward, who works at the University of San Diego Medical Center and met Hartwell when he was serving as president of the Southern California Renal Disease Council.

Renal disease occurs when the kidneys fail to clean the blood by filtering out extra water and wastes. Its most common causes are diabetes and high blood pressure, but for Hartwell it was the ingestion of the E. coli bacteria.

Treatment includes two types of dialysis, hemo- and peritoneal, or kidney transplants, all very difficult procedures for different reasons.

Hemodialysis, which is a daily two-hour procedure, is the use of a blood purifier, which extracts blood from the patient's body, does the work of a kidney and then pumps it back through an IV.

Kidney transplants are only possible when a ``matching'' kidney can be found from a donor, and then the surgeries still often fail.

``Lori has existed on a combination of dialysis and transplants for decades - she's turned that experience into nothing but the most positive giving that you can think of,'' Ward said.

Hartwell has had three kidney transplants and 12 years of dialysis, to go along with 32 other related surgeries.

Her most recent kidney transplant, which was a success, was in 1990. But up until then, she was living on dialysis.

``I didn't pee for 12 years,'' she said. When the kidneys fail, many normal functions of the blood-purifying process halt as well.

``I was really good on long car rides,'' she added.

Despite her sense of humor about it, Hartwell remembers feeling horrible, physically and mentally.

She thought of herself as ``damaged goods'' and often became depressed, frustrated that the disease set her apart from healthy people.

``I never thought I'd find love. Does anyone want all that medical baggage?'' she said, thinking back.

``There were a lot of low points before I got married,'' she said.

But she didn't let it stop her.

``I dated, and I got a job. I did everything as normally as I could,'' she said.

She lived so normally, in fact, that when her third chance to get a kidney finally came around in 1990, she almost missed it because she had driven to Big Bear for a camping trip.

``I was out in the woods when they got hold of me,'' she said.

The park ranger had to track Hartwell down as quickly as possible - a kidney can't sit on ice for much more than 36 hours, Hartwell said. Doctors in Denver had found a perfect match from a donor in his mid-20s who was killed in a car crash.

Although deeply disappointed after her first two transplants failed, Hartwell was ready to give it another try.

``I'm from Vegas, so I decided to take the gamble and go for it,'' Hartwell said.

For the past 12 years, Hartwell's Denver kidney has worked, but she hasn't forgotten the years of dialysis and knows that she could go back to it any time if the kidney she now has fails.

Since the transplant, she has been treated for arthritis, osteoporosis and renal failure, and is probably going to have a hysterectomy in the near future.

``If I focused on all the what-ifs, I wouldn't get out of bed every day,'' Hartwell said.

Instead, she has decided to focus on helping people, epitomized by her book (www.chronicallyhappy.com), which outlines how to cope with chronic illness.

She also created the Renal Support Network, a directory of patients and professionals for people with renal disease to contact.

``It's exciting - I never thought I would be in a situation where I could make a living helping people,'' she said.

``There's a real blessing through having an illness. I think everything is more urgent because I don't know how much time I've got,'' Hartwell said.

Harkening back to some of her most difficult times coping with renal failure, Hartwell organized an annual prom at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. For the fourth year, she is working on a dance for teenage renal patients who have not had the opportunity before.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Lori Hartwell, with her parrot, Johnny, says that, despite years of illness, ``I did everything as normally as I could.''

David Sprague/Staff Photographer