- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Here's an article in Florida Today about Jellybean:
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200801 26/SPORTS/801260321/1002/SPORTS
If laughter, as they say, is the best medicine, then Jessica Harder should be all cured by now.
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But giggles and grins, unfortunately, can't replace hearts and kidneys -- two of a myriad of physical woes for the 20-year-old former surfer, who eight years ago was the poster child for the National Kidney Foundation surfing contest in Cocoa Beach.
"I still feel like a normal person," she says, checking her cell-phone text messages. "People look at me sometimes because I have a handicapped sticker in the window, but I could tell them stories . . .
She could start with two open-heart surgeries before she turned 3, one kidney transplant at age 12, four strokes -- two of which had paralyzing effects she's still overcoming -- and, oh, how about life-threatening viral encephalitis, liver disease and end-stage renal disease?
"She's been beat up . . . by one of those big bats, too," said Rockledge's Rich Salick, the state's director of community relations for the National Kidney Foundation. "But I've never seen anyone as motivated as her. She's always laughing and smiling, and that's great to see."
Harder's transplanted kidney -- the one she received from an 18-year-old cadaver -- has shrunk ("Doctors can't even find it," she says) and hasn't functioned since October of 2006. She currently requires dialysis -- filtering of the blood -- three times a week, three hours per session.
"I haven't peed in eight months," she says, smiling. "But nine hours a week, to keep living, that's fine."
Continues in the link
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200801 26/SPORTS/801260321/1002/SPORTS