Two kidney transplants give a college basketball coach a new outlook on life.Life After Near DeathBy Gregg Doyel National Columnist
His name is Kelly Wells, and he has three kidneys. Two of them weren't originally his, and one of those doesn't work. The only kidney that is his? It doesn't work either. Kelly Wells is a miracle of modern science and organ donation, and he's not a bad basketball coach either. He won a 2003 high school state championship in Kentucky and the 2011 NAIA national title at Pikeville (Ky.) University, and he's only 43 years old, and he hopes to add more titles. And more kidneys."They're supposed to last about 18 years," Wells says of the two kidneys he has received, one in 2004 and another in late June. "I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day and said, 'I don't have much palette left to do any art work.' If I'm blessed enough to need another one, they'll have to take one out to make room. Maybe they'll take out two or three."That would ruin Wells' macabre parlor trick, where he invites someone to poke him below the ribs and feel all the useless organs in there. Kidneys tend to be toward the back, but the surgeon put each of Wells' transplanted kidneys closer to the front."More accessible," Wells says, and not just for doctors."You can push it and feel it," he says. "It's kind of weird, and you have to push pretty hard, but you'll feel them in there. My left native kidney is still attached with blood flow going through it. It doesn't do anything, but it's still there for -- I don't know. For giggles, I guess."Kelly Wells won a state championship as a high school coach and a national championship as a college coach. He also has been the recipient of two donated kidneys. (UPike Sports Information)Wells is talking from his car on Interstate 75, somewhere between Cincinnati and Dayton, after spending the morning at the UC Medical Center getting treatment on his newest kidney, which his body is trying to reject. It happens, Wells says, but he has spent three days at the hospital being pumped with medicine to fight his body, which is fighting the foreign kidney, and he believes the medicine will win."When you put a foreign substance in the body, sometimes it doesn't accept it right away," he says. "It'll work."So will Wells. So is Wells. The reason he's heading north on Interstate 75 toward Dayton, and not south toward home, is because he has work to do. The first place he went after leaving the hospital was a Cincinnati church rec center to work out a recruit. Next thing he did was call a Division I transfer considering the powerhouse Wells has built at Pikeville, known locally as UPike, a prospect Wells refers to as "6 [foot] 8." Then Wells kept heading north, to the airport in Dayton, to pick up one of his players returning to UPike for the fall semester. Along the way he has returned my call, telling me he has plenty of time "unless I get a call from 6-8, and then I'll have to call you back."This is how Wells is finishing a day he started in the hospital, making sure his body doesn't reject his only working kidney.The Wells family: Kaylee, Shawne, Mason and Kelly Wells. Shawne Wells donated a kidney to her husband but it eventually failed. (UPike Sports Information)"That's the way it works at our level," says Wells, , with the program's only national title and only two 30-win seasons.When his first donated kidney started to fail last year, Wells didn't back off. He kept coaching, kept recruiting, kept speaking at local elementary schools and civic groups about the need for organ donation. When he got home at night, he fell asleep. Bedroom, living room, dinner table -- didn't matter."If he sat still, he was out," says his wife, Shawne. "He was really swollen all the time, and he had high blood pressure that led to massive headaches. He wanted to take his daughter to the gym or throw the football with his son, but his body was fighting it. He's a wonderful dad, and he was involved, but he wanted to be more involved. His kidney was failing."Shawne Wells felt especially bad about that.It was her kidney.***His name is Jacob Lucas, and after he died he saved four people's lives.Bill Speros &#)The families of Jacob Lucas and Kelly Wells are intertwined, but we can't go there just yet. First, meet Jacob Lucas. He was 21, from the Kentucky coal-mining town of Thornton, studying to be a utility company lineman. One of his favorite people in the world was his grandfather, a coal miner named Dan Lucas. Jacob called him Papaw. They loved Kentucky basketball, and they loved it together.When Jacob was 4, Papaw had a series of heart attacks that left him near death. He received a heart transplant, went back to work, and is alive to this day. At age 4, Jacob knew he wanted to be an organ donor. When he turned 16 and got his driver's license, he made it official. The first person he told was Papaw.Five years later, Jacob Lucas came around a curve on the Hal Rogers Parkway and crashed into a truck at a construction site. It was August 2013, and Jacob's heart had to be restarted by an EMT before he could be flown to University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington.Among the patients in that hospital was a 23-year-old woman named Ariana Sumner. She was dying of heart disease, had been since February, and in those six months had left the hospital just once -- for two weeks -- before having to come back. She needed a new heart, doctors had told her that February, or she would die. By August she was down to her final weeks, if that.Sumner's boyfriend, Travis Sturgill, was in Ariana's hospital room that night in August 2013 when his friends on Facebook started talking about the car accident of a friend from Letcher County Central High School in Whitesburg. A young man named Jacob Lucas. Jacob was two years younger, but Sturgill knew him. Over the next 36 hours Sturgill learned that Lucas had been gravely injured, then flown to UK Hospital, then declared brain-dead. There was talk on Facebook that Lucas was an organ donor -- and then there was a knock on the door. Doctors were in Ariana Sumner's hospital room, and they were in a hurry.It was time for Ariana to get a new heart. They had a donor."I could add two and two," Sturgill says. "She was getting Jacob's heart."That was Aug. 21, 2013 -- a year ago today -- and a year later Ariana Sumner is getting stronger by the day. She is one of four people alive today because of organs from Jacob Lucas, whose sister Hannah attends UPike.Bill Speros &#)Where Kelly Wells is the basketball coach.Hannah Lucas had has been outspoken about the need for organ donors in Pike County, a Kentucky county that historically has had some of the most people needing organs but some of the least people willing to donate. Kelly Wells has been outspoken about the need for organ donors in Pike County, too. And so the wife of Kelly Wells reached out to the sister of Jacob Lucas, and together they teamed up for Donate Life Night before UPike's game against Lindsey Wilson College in February. Fans were urged to sign the organ donor registry to put their name in a hat. Two winners received a $50 gift certificate to the Blue Raven or Bank 253, local restaurants.The turnout was underwhelming."Maybe 20 people signed up, which is kind of sad," Shawne Wells says. "I think about all the people that are at the game, and you only get that much to sign up. But that's 20 more than if we hadn't done it, is my thinking."Hannah Lucas says they'll try to add more names this year. She says she'll be an advocate for organ donors for the rest of her life. She says her brother's kidneys went to two recipients, his liver and pancreas went to another, and his heart went to Ariana Sumner.She says all of this on Monday of this week."It was a year ago today," she says, "my brother was declared brain dead and became an organ donor."***His name is Braxton Upthegrove, and it's possible Nerlens Noel saved his life.Upthegrove is a Kentucky basketball fan and Noel is a former Kentucky player, and while Upthegrove was suffering from kidney failure this winter Noel reached out to him. It was halftime of a game between Bryan Station and Lexington's Henry Clay High, where Upthegrove was a sophomore student manager. Upthegrove was walking to the locker room when coaches told him to stop and watch the video message being played on the wall. Up on the wall Upthegrove saw Nerlens Noel, Bill Speros &#)Upthegrove made the trip, hung out with Noel, went to the game -- even got to meet his favorite player, LeBron James of the Heat. LeBron gave him a pair of basketball shoes.Upthegrove came home still needing a second kidney transplant -- his first one, at age 6, had been failing for almost three years -- and soon he was spending most of his time in a hospital, sleeping and waiting for the phone to ring with news of a new kidney. Two months later he got that call. Officials at the , a non-profit organ procurement agency, noticed a sizable increase in names on its donor registry after Noel's gesture made the news in Kentucky. Is that why Upthegrove, after nearly three years on the waiting list, got a kidney so quickly after returning from Philadelphia? We'll never know, but KODA public education coordinator Charlotte Wong likes to think it is."It was incredible outreach by Nerlens Noel," Wong says. "This little boy was in his final months, maybe days. He was having a hard time eating food and digesting it. He was right there on [death's] doorstep."The door swings open for too many. Nearly 20 people die every day in America while waiting for an organ, but the door stayed shut for the student manager of the Henry Clay High School basketball team. Braxton Upthegrove, 17, got his new kidney on May 14.A few hours to the east, that door was starting to crack open for Kelly Wells.***There was no way Wells was going to miss a chance to coach against Louisville's Rick Pitino but he was rushed to a hospital after the game. (UPike Sports Information)His name was Rick Pitino, and Kelly Wells wanted to coach against him. It was Nov. 1, 2012 and Wells wasn't feeling well but he had a game to coach, and even if it was an exhibition, this game was at the KFC Yum! Center and this opponent was No. 2 Louisville -- which was five months away from winning the national championship -- and Wells wanted to be there. He was urinating blood and his abdomen was hurting so much that he spent the contest kneeling and asking people on the bench to pray for him, but Kelly Wells made it through the game.He didn't make it through the post-game press conference. He didn't even make it there. He was put into a Louisville policeman's car and driven, lights flashing, to the hospital. Turns out Wells' donated kidney -- from his wife in 2004, when Berger's disease claimed its first kidney -- wasn't the main problem. That kidney wasn't great, showing early signs of rejection, but it was his native kidney on the right side that had a cancerous mass.With one of Wells' kidneys failing and the another ravaged by cancer, surgery and another transplant were required. (UPike Sports Information)Wells spent more than a week in the hospital, missing three games, but coached the rest of the season with one kidney being rejected and the other covered in cancer. Both needed to go but the cancerous organ took precedent after the 2012-13 season, leaving Wells' body to recover while he coached last year with just one working kidney -- his wife's donated kidney, which was in the early stages of rejection."Those were tough times," Well says, then pauses and starts sniffling. "I need to regroup here."Another pause."My family side is the hardest part of the whole deal for me," he says. "I'm sorry. When I think of the impact on growing kids -- that's the part I want to be healthy for, to be able to be with those kids. It's tough because you want to take them to ballgames and take them to school and just have those moments that are special. The kids have been troopers about it, but you don't experience as much as you'd like."Brother-in-law Brock Walter, left, stepped in to donate a kidney to Wells in June. (UPike Sports Information)Wells knew he was getting a new kidney after the 2013-14 season, and he knew where it was coming from -- his brother-in-law, Brock Walter. Back in 2004 when Wells needed a transplant for the first time, five family members (his wife, sister, cousin and two brothers-in-law) were tested for compatibility. Four came back as matches, although his wife's brother was subsequently scratched when cancerous cells were found on one of his kidneys. The cells were removed, having been discovered before the cancer could spread.Bill Speros &#)Another life possibly saved?"Who knows?" Wells says. "But my brother-in-law never went to the doctor for any reason. If it weren't for that testing, you just don't know when they were going to catch it."Wells weakened as the season rolled along but he was determined to finish. Toward the end his feet were so swollen he could barely put on his shoes, and his family was more likely than not to find him asleep on the living room recliner."He'd wake up and say, 'I didn't mean to go to sleep,'" Shawne Wells says. "But his body couldn't function anymore. His doctor in Lexington bragged on him to the other patients in the lobby: 'Here's the sickest guy I know, and his team's ranked third in the nation!' Kelly fought through it so well, it wasn't apparent to us just how bad it was."By summer Wells could fight no more. He received his second kidney transplant, this one from Brock Walter, on June 30 in Cincinnati. Death's doorstep beckons each day for roughly 20 people waiting on an organ, but not for Kelly Wells. Not anymore. Not until next time.Meantime, Wells will continue to spread the word about the need for organ donors. He speaks at schools and civic clubs, and almost without fail he is approached by someone -- a guidance counselor, a teacher, a member of the Kiwanis Club -- with their own family story of an organ donated or received."It's amazing," he says. "This really shrinks the world when I hear about how many people are affected."Not that he needs the reminder. Small world? Get this: Wells' college roommate has a kidney disease. He needs a new organ. That guy isn't on the doorstep, not yet, but he's in the neighborhood.His name is -- well, Kelly Wells' friend would rather keep his name out of this story. This is his fight, and he'll fight it out of the public eye.But what's your name? And is it on ?
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City of Life and Death is a 2009 Chinese
film written and directed by , marking his third feature film. The film deals with the
and its aftermath (commonly referred to as the "Rape of Nanking" or the "") during the . The film is also known as Nanking! Nanking! or Nanjing! Nanjing!.
While originally slated for a 2008 release, the director-general of the
announced in September that the film would be delayed to an early 2009 release. The film was eventually released on April 22, 2009 where it became a box office success, earning 150 million yuan (approximately US$20 million) in its first two and a half weeks alone.
City of Life and Death is set in 1937, shortly after the beginning of the . The
has just captured
(or Nanking), capital of the . What followed is historically known as the , a period of several weeks wherein massive numbers of Chinese prisoners-of-war and civilians were killed by the Japanese military.
After some commanders of the
flee Nanking, a Chinese soldier Lieutenant Lu Jianxiong and his comrade-in-arms Shunzi attempt to stop a group of deserting troops from leaving the city, but as they exit the gates, they are captured by Japanese forces that have surrounded the city.
As the Japanese comb the city for enemy forces, Superior Private (later Sergeant) Kadokawa Masao and his men are attacked by Lu Jianxiong and a small unit of both regular and non-regular soldiers, who fire at them from buildings. Lu and his companions are eventually forced to surrender as more Japanese troops arrive. The Chinese prisoners-of-war are systematically escorted to various locations to be mass executed. Shunzi and a boy called Xiaodouzi survive the shootings and they flee to the , run by the German businessman and
and other Westerners. Thousands of Chinese women, children, elderly men and wounded soldiers take refuge in this safety zone. However, the zone is forcefully entered several times by bands of Japanese soldiers intent on making sexual advances on female refugees. Due to the repeated intrusions, the women are urged to cut their hair and dress like men to protect themselves from being raped. A prostitute called Xiaojiang refuses to do so, saying that she needs to keep her hair in order to earn a living.
Meanwhile, Kadokawa develops feelings for a Japanese prostitute named Yuriko, and struggles to come to terms with the omnipresent violence around him with his own conflicting impulses. Despite his feelings of alienation, Kadokawa brings Yuriko candy and gifts from Japan, and promises to marry her after the war.
Rabe's secretary Tang Tianxiang and a teacher named Jiang Shuyun manage the daily operations of the safety zone. Even though he is in a privileged position, Tang is still unable to protect his young daughter from being thrown out of a window by a Japanese soldier, and his sister-in-law from being raped. When the Japanese officer Second Lieutenant Ida Osamu demands that the refugees provide 100 women to serve as "", Rabe and Jiang tearfully make the announcement to the community. Xiaojiang and others volunteer themselves, hoping that their sacrifice would save the refugees.
Kadokawa meets Xiaojiang and brings her rice but witnesses another soldier raping her as she lies almost lifeless. Later, many "comfort women", including Xiaojiang, die from the abuse, and Kadokawa sees their naked bodies being taken away. Kadokawa feels further estranged when he witnesses Ida shooting Tang's sister-in-law May, who has become insane.
Rabe receives an order to return to Germany because his activities in the safety zone are detrimental to diplomatic ties between his country and Japan. Tang and his wife are allowed to leave Nanking with Rabe. However Tang changes his mind at the last moment and trades places with a Chinese soldier pretending to be Rabe's assistant, saying that he wants to stay behind to find May. Mrs Tang reveals that she is pregnant before bidding her husband farewell. Not long after Rabe left, Ida has Tang executed by firing squad.
The Japanese disband the safety zone and start hunting for Chinese men who were previously soldiers, promising that these men would find work and receive pay if they turn themselves in. However, men deemed to be soldiers are huddled into trucks and sent for execution. Shunzi, who survived the earlier mass killings, is physically checked and initially deemed to be a non-combatant, but is later recognised by a Japanese soldier and brought onto a truck as well.
and other Westerners plead with the Japanese, Ida permits each refugee to choose only one man from the trucks to be saved. Jiang Shuyun rescues a man, pretending to be his wife, and then returns for Shunzi, claiming that he is her husband, while Xiaodouzi acts as their son. Kadokawa sees through Jiang's ruse but does not expose her. Despite this, another Japanese soldier points her out to Ida and the three of them are captured. Shunzi is taken away again, this time together with Xiaodouzi. Jiang, knowing that she will be raped, asks Kadokawa to kill her. He grants her her wish and shoots her, much to his comrades' surprise.
Afterwards, Kadokawa looks for Yuriko and learns that she has died after leaving Nanking. He says that she was his wife and requests that she be given a proper funeral. As the Japanese perform a dance-ritual to celebrate their conquest of Nanking and honour their war dead, Kadokawa reveals his emotional turmoil over what he has done and witnessed.
Kadokawa and another Japanese soldier march Shunzi and Xiaodouzi out of town to be executed, but to their surprise, Kadokawa releases them instead. Kadokawa tells the other soldier, "Life is more difficult than death." The soldier bows to show his respect for Kadokawa's decision and walks away. Kadokawa then weeps before shooting himself to escape from his guilt.
In the end credits, it is revealed that Mrs Tang lived into old age, as did Ida Osamu, and that Xiaodouzi is still alive today.
as Lu Jianxiong
as Jiang Shuyun
as Tang Tianxiang (Mr. Tang)
as Madam Zhou (Mrs. Tang)
Nakaizumi Hideo as Kadokawa Masao
as Jiang Xiangjun (Xiaojiang)
Yao Di as Zhou Xiaomei (May)
Kohata Ryu as Ida Osamu
Zhao Yisui as Shunzi
Liu Bin as Xiaodouzi
Miyamoto Yuko as Yuriko
Beverly Peckous as
Aisling Dunne as Grace the missionary
Kajioka Junichi as Mr. Tomita
Liu Jinling
Zhao Zhenhua
Filming began in
in October 2007, working under a budget of 80 million yuan (US$12 million), and was produced by the , Stella Megamedia Group,
and Jiangsu Broadcasting System.
The film endured a lengthy period undergoing analysis by , waiting six months for script approval, and another six months for approval of the finished film. It was finally approved for release on April 22, 2009. However, the
did require some minor edits and cuts, including a scene of a Japanese officer beheading a prisoner, a scene of a woman being tied down prior to being raped, and an interrogation scene of a Chinese soldier and a Japanese commander.
City of Life and Death was released on 535 film prints and 700 digital screens on April 22 grossing an estimated US$10.2 million (70 million yuan) in its first five days. This made it the second biggest opener in 2009, after the second part of , which opened with US$14.86 million (101.5 million yuan) in its first four days of release. The film is also the highest new box office record for director , whose second feature film
grossed US$1.26 million (8.6 million yuan) in 2004.
Despite its success, City of Life and Death created controversy upon its release in mainland China. In particular, some criticised the film's sympathetic portrayal of the Japanese soldier Kadokawa. The film was nearly pulled from theaters, and Lu even received online death threats to both himself and his family.
The film received a limited U.S. release in May, 2011.
The film won the top
prize at the 2009
and also won the Best Cinematography prize. At the 2009 , the film won
() and Achievement in Cinematography (Cao Yu). The film also won Best Director () and Best Cinematographer (Cao Yu) Awards at the
in 2010. The film won Best Cinematography (Cao Yu) at the
and was nominated for Best Visual Effects. At the
in 2009, the film also won Best Film Prize.
City of Life and Death has received positive reviews. The film received a 91% approval rating from critics based on 47 reviews on aggregator site , with an average score of 8.4/10.
Kate Muir of
gave the film five out of five stars, describes the film as "harrowing, shocking and searingly emotional", and states "the picture has the grandeur of a classic. It should be witnessed." Derek Elley of
states "at times semi-impressionistic, at others gut-wrenchingly up close and personal, Nanjing massacre chronicle City of Life and Death lives up to hype and expectations." Maggie Lee of
states the film is "Potently cinematic and full of personal stylistic bravura."
Betsy Sharkey of the
describes the film as "Truly a masterpiece in black and white and pain" and the film contains "some of the most affectingly choreographed battle scenes to be found, with Lu Chuan a master at moving from the micro of a face to the macro of a city in ruins." Karina Longworth of
describe the film "manages to convey the total horror of the Japanese atrocities from the perspective of both perpetrators and victims, all with exceptional nuance, sensitivity and sadness" and the film "has the feel of a lost post-War foreign classic, a masterwork implicating the viewer in the horrors of bearing witness."
Michael O'Sullivan at
gave it three out of four stars, elucidating it as "...a muscular, physical movie, pieced together from arresting imagery and revelatory gestures, large and small."
Frater, Patrick (). . Variety.
Elley, Derek (). . .
Ho, Vicci (). . Variety.
Wong, Edward (). . .
Coonan, Clifford (). . .
. Asia Pacific Arts. .
. The Times.
Elley, Derek (). . Variety.
Lee, Maggie (). . The Hollywood Reporter.
Betsy Sharkey (). . .
Karina Longworth (). . .
, Michael O'Sullivan. Washington Post. June 10, 2011. Accessed June 10, 2011
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