When Chuck Winer was a combat correspondent and photographer during the Vietnam War, the Army veteran was in many dangerous situations. Nowadays, his life is also under threat, but this time it’s an enemy from within: Kidney disease.
Winer, who has lived in Newton for about 17 years with his wife Debbie Kurlansky-Winer, is hoping to find a donor as his prognosis has gotten worse. Although he is on the kidney transplant list at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he and his wife also are trying to find a live donor.
His brother, who previously donated bone marrow to Winer after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1990, didn’t qualify to give him a kidney due to his own health issues.
Winer said that the earlier blood cancer and now his kidney disease could have been caused by his exposure to Agent Orange during his time in the service.
After receiving full-body radiation and chemotherapy, he said his kidneys were damaged and as a result, he has had chronic kidney disease for 30 years. Both organs are now failing.
Military service and beyond
As the editor of the Army’s First Aviation Brigade’s monthly magazine, Winer flew in helicopters and fixed-wing aircrafts in pursuit of his stories.
However, he said it was challenging since, ironically, “I have a little vertigo.”
Winer, a specialist first class, flew from the Mekong Delta to the north of the country as he covered different units. Sometimes he’d sit next to a machine-gunner and the helicopter’s open door to get good photos.
“The people I served with, especially the pilots, were some of the most exceptional people I had ever met … real stand-up guys,” he recalled.
On his first mission, he remembered he was on a fixed-wing plane. With the pilot in front, Winer took photos from the back when he was overwhelmed by a case of vertigo. About to become sick, the pilot gave Winer the helmet bag that his wife had sewn for him. Afterward, Winer said he felt horrible, but the kind pilot told him not to worry.
After finishing his stint in the military, he was considering his next steps when his father, a doctor, suggested he look into a healthcare career.
“There are a lot of exciting things you can do in healthcare,” he said when reflecting on his 45 years in the field. Before retiring in 2015, Winer worked with insurance companies, hospitals, a doctors’ organization, and in contract negotiations.
In 2011, he was invited to attend a fundraiser for then-President Barack Obama. After telling him about his work, Obama invited him to D.C., to speak with the president’s health policy team.
“That was the highlight of my healthcare career,” he said.
Looking for a donor
Winer works out and lives a healthy lifestyle, but in the last couple of years he’s felt increasingly weak and fatigued.
“It’s a challenge every meal to figure out what the best choices are,” said Kurlansky-Winer. “We have to be vigilant all the time.”
His nephrologist (kidney specialist) told him he’d likely need dialysis soon.
“It could be any month,” said Winer.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Your kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Your kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals — such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium — in your blood.”
His suppressed immune system “makes me a person who’s very susceptible” to COVID, said Winer. “It has completely restricted my ability to go anywhere.”
A member of Temple Shalom in Medford, Winer said his religion has given him strength over the years, including during his time in Vietnam.
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has made finding a person willing to donate a kidney even more difficult. Transplanted kidneys usually come from cadavers, but outcomes are better from living donors, he said.
Winer and his wife are reaching out to veteran groups, including Newton’s Post 440, and others, in the hopes of disseminating his story and finding someone to help.
“I feel like I’m playing ‘Beat the Clock,'” said Kurlansky-Winer.
More information
For more information from the National Kidney Registry about Winer and to learn about kidney donation and fill out an application to be screened, visit https://nkr.org/dnd472
To read more about Winer on his Facebook page, visit “Help Chuck Find a Kidney“
For more information from the American Cancer Society about Agent Orange, visit https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/agent-orange-and-cancer.html
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