Latricia McKinnerney – Kidney Failure Patient Success Story

Mystery solved

Methodist Mansfield specialists uncovered the cause of Latricia McKinnerney’s kidney failure and saved her life

A roller rink. That’s where Latricia McKinnerney would have preferred to be, refereeing roller derby while dozens of her friends sped around her.

Instead, she was at home in bed and feeling awful.

She’d taken a round of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin to treat an infection — but that was weeks ago. Now the infection was gone, but she still felt sick.

“I couldn’t eat and had a fever constantly,” says the 27-year-old, who had recently moved to Mansfield.

To make matters worse, two rounds of blood work at a local clinic were showing some irregular numbers — numbers that usually pointed to kidney failure.

Confused and concerned, McKinnerney turned to John Willis, DO, independently practicing internal medicine physician on the medical staff at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center.

“There had been such a dramatic increase in her creatinine level in such a short time that I was concerned the second lab value was not correct,” says Dr. Willis, who ordered a third round of blood work. Unfortunately, this time the results were even worse.

Dr. Willis admitted McKinnerney to the hospital that very day.

When the body backfires

Samir Nangia, MD, FASN, independently practicing nephrologist new to the Methodist Mansfield medical staff, evaluated McKinnerney that evening.

“A creatinine level of 1 is normal; at 2, you’ve lost half of your kidney function,” Dr. Nangia says. “At her highest that night, Latricia was a 10. After a biopsy the next day, the pathologist said she had one of the worst drug-induced inflammations in the kidney that he had ever seen.”

While ciprofloxacin is something commonly prescribed, for McKinnerney, it triggered an allergic reaction in the kidney. Dr. Nangia collaborated with other specialists to prescribe a treatment regimen of steroids and dialysis for McKinnerney, and within a few weeks, her kidney function was back to normal.

Sigh of relief

McKinnerney was relieved to have people such as Dr. Nangia — in her view, “the best doctor ever” — and the team at Methodist Mansfield help her regain wellness.

“The communication was great,” she says. “Every person who cared for me told me exactly what test they were taking and why. I always knew exactly what was going on.”

She was also grateful to another group of people: “315 wonderful women in the sport of roller derby.” Skaters throughout the Metroplex supported her via a Facebook page, “Updates on Trish.”

“It was a little scary going through everything,” she says. “But it really makes you appreciate what you have and the people who step up to help and support you.”

From the summer 2013 edition of Shine magazine.