Syracuse Woman Raises Awareness of Joining Organ Donor Registry

University of Rochester Medical Center

Carol Kankoski misses the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, the music and the decorations. Tethered to monitors and machines during this season of giving, the Syracuse-area woman awaits the ultimate gift – a heart – to overcome heart failure, which has her hospitalized at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Strong Memorial Hospital.

Kankoski suffers from cardiomyopathy, or weakening of the heart muscle, impeding its ability to pump enough blood through the circulation system. Heart failure expert Eugene Storozynsky, M.D., Ph.D., said the “insidious course” of her disease was impacting other organs, like her kidneys, which had been able to compensate for the poor circulation.

Read more: http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=3359