Health & Wellness

Hazards Lurk in Fresh-Scented Cleaning Products

Hazards Lurk in Fresh-Scented Cleaning Products

Mopping produces pollutants similar to vehicle emissions

The fresh-scented products used to clean our homes and offices come with risks to our respira-tory health. The chemicals used to create scents such as lemon and pine pollute indoor air with nano-sized particles in similar ways that motor emissions affect the air we breathe outdoors, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

A Second Chance at Life, Career

A Second Chance at Life, Career

Nursing student’s midlife career change motivated by desire to pay it forward

Kris Kavelaris insists he’s done nothing heroic.

The MATC nursing student and 2020 inductee in the Fresenius Kabi Donation Hall of Fame — recognizing individuals nationwide who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to blood donation — credits the team of nurses who exhibited kindness, support and motivation as he spent four months recovering at Froedtert Hospital from a horrific auto accident in 1998.

They are the heroes, he says.

The Kidney Campaign

The Kidney Campaign

A U-M connection led to an altruistic organ donation, despite COVID-19 and a cancer scare.

For years, Ed Silberman lived a relatively normal life during the day. But every night, the 63-year-old financial adviser from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, went through two rounds of peritoneal dialysis, which uses the abdominal lining to filter blood inside the body. At his age, a normal kidney functions at 85% or higher. By fall 2019, Silberman’s kidneys were functioning at 7%.

As one of 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, his best hope was to match with a living donor. So Silberman’s family, including son-in-law Jeremy Garson, JD’14, launched a social media campaign to find a stranger to save Silberman’s life.

Finding Her Way

Finding Her Way

Alumna embarks on a 500-mile journey to grapple with her devastating diagnosis and advance breast cancer screening for others

The pilgrim gripped each stone, one by one, turning it over in her hand. She felt its weight and ran her finger over its surface before laying it gently down at the base of the Cruz de Ferro.

One stone for each of her four Sigma Kappa sorority sisters who had died of breast cancer, one of whom passed away since Leslie Ferris Yerger (M’84, S’85) embarked on her 500-mile pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. She solemnly closed her eyes and thought of Toni Mark Hicks (S’84), Madelon (Moulton) Shahroozi (HHS’86), Nancy Keil Slamkowski (HHS’84), and Sally (Shock) Wurster (LA’87). Less than one year following her own diagnosis, Yerger reflected on their too-short lives.