Gulf Pine Catholic

P INE C ATHOLIC GULF DECEMBER 25,2020 > VOLUME 38, NO. 9 > WWW.BILOXIDIOCESE.ORG THE NEWSPAPER OF THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BILOXI BY TERRY DICKSON OCEAN SPRINGS – Christmas 2020 came early for Dr. Todd Coulter -- in May, to be exact. That’s when Dr. Coulter, an Ocean Springs physician and mem- ber of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, received a new kidney from a rela- tive stranger, Luke Brenner, who also happens to be a fellow parishio- ner. Dr. Coulter, 56, and his wife, Dionne, are the parents of eight chil- dren and have long been prominent members of the community. They are very active in St. Elizabeth Seton Parish and a number of Catholic lay organizations. Dr. Coulter runs Midway Family Clinic in Ocean Springs and ministers in local pris- ons. Dr. Coulter’s health travails began three years ago. “The diagnosis was made in June of 2017,” said Dr. Coulter. “At that time, my wife was working in Ocean Springs Hospital as a nurse and, in order to maintain the insurances she had, I had to get a Healthy You exam. So I had screening laboratories done and they found out I had an elevated creatinine level of nine and a blood urea nitrogen level of 108. “To put things into perspective, a normal creatinine level is 1 to 1.5, and a normal blood urea nitrogen level is less than 23. I was in renal failure.” Dr. Coulter didn’t understand what led to his condi- tion. “I didn’t recognize the symptoms,” he said. “Since 2014, I had been aggressively losing weight and exercis- ing. In 2014, I weighed about 248 pounds and, in the next two to three years, I had gotten down to 197 pounds. I was doing a 5-K race every other week. I was doing body pump at both the YMCA and Flex Fitness in Ocean Springs. I was actively cycling. I was in the best shape of my life. “I’m an internist, so this was to be perceived as an Physician is beneficiary of fellow parishioner’s God-inspired “Selfless, Courageous Act of Charity” Luke Brenner, left, and Dr. Todd Coulter, right, are pictured at Midway Family Clinic inOcean Springs, not long after Brenner donated a kidney to Coulter. The two men are parishioners of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Ocean Springs. Photo/Terry Dickson insidious finding. Where did this come from? I did know I had diabetes and hypertension, but with all this exercise and weight loss, I had not really paid attention to my diabetes and felt it was being mitigated by my weight loss, which it wasn’t. Period. The bottom line is, I’m an excellent doctor but, like most doctors, I’m not a good patient.” Dr. Coulter consulted a nurse practitioner, Tabitha Bond, who is also a St. Elizabeth Seton parishioner, who referred him to Ocean Springs nephrologist Dr. Tracy Pittman. “Dr. Pittman’s office called and told me to report to the emergency room immediately because there are a lot of problems that could have arisen,” Dr. Coulter said. “So I was admitted to the hospital in June of 2017 and stayed for about a week. We thought perhaps that it was multiple myeloma, a form of kidney cancer, but we had an ultrasound of the kidneys, which didn’t show small, shrunken kidneys. It showed normal sized kidneys. We then had a renal biopsy performed by one of my col- leagues, Dr. Charles Menendez, a parishioner at St. Alphonsus Parish in Ocean Springs. It showed dying kidney cells secondary to diabetes.” Dr. Pittman gave Dr. Coulter the option of starting dialysis or waiting before things proceeded any further. “We decided to hold because I was trying to rationalize and come to some understanding of the disease process,” said Dr. Coulter. “I was being hit with a life-changing diag- nosis and, frankly, just like any patient, I was afraid.” Dr. Coulter said he didn’t feel that sick at the time. “That’s the big issue,” he said. “We had subsequently planned to take a cruise in September, which we were able to do, but, during the vacation, I began experiencing the declining stamina and comorbidities that you have with renal failure.” On the morning of Nov. 1, 2017 -- All Saint’s Day -- Dr. Coulter was at home going through his normal routine. “I got out of bed, walked about two feet and had an overwhelming sense of fluid throughout my entire chest and I heard the profound crackles in my chest,” he said. “I realized that I was in pulmonary edema. This was a sad situation. Fortunately, I realized what it was but I also realized that I needed to maintain calm.” Dr. Coulter called for his oldest daughter, Chloe, a junior at Ole Miss, who happened to be home at the time. “I told her I couldn’t walk more than three feet and I needed her to take me to the hospital,” he said. “By the time we got to Ocean Springs Hospital, my pulmonary edema was getting worse and I could not get out of the car.” Dr. Coulter was able to tell the emergency staff what his diagnosis was and had them alert Dr. Pittman. SEE DR. COULTER, PAGE 12