{"id":24768,"date":"2010-10-04T14:26:46","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T18:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/?p=24768"},"modified":"2021-03-02T15:51:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T20:51:04","slug":"beating-the-odds-volleyball-player-returns-after-battling-chronic-renal-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/staging\/8357\/beating-the-odds-volleyball-player-returns-after-battling-chronic-renal-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating The Odds\u2014Volleyball Player Returns One Year After Battling Chronic Renal Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edgaris Franchesca Leon towers over her opponents on the volleyball court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At\u00a0 6-foot-1inches tall, Leon looks every bit the part of the physically imposing player she portrays on the court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Back Again: Middle blocker Edgaris Franchesca Leon is poised to return to form this season after sitting out last season after she was hospitalized due to chronic renal disease. AKEEM BRUNSON \/ THE REPORTER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Selected to the 2008 Southern Conference first team, Leon\u2014 a middle blocker on the Miami Dade College Lady Sharks volleyball team\u2014ranked 12th that year in hitting efficiency with 134 kills. For good measure, she added 44 digs and 43 blocks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, what she didn\u2019t know was that her life was about to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a summer volleyball tournament in Texas in 2009, she fell ill. Leon got lightheaded and nauseous. She was transported to Baptist Hospital in Kendall<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, but was soon released. That episode would play itself out three more times during the next month\u2014on one occasion she vomited 14 times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you know something is wrong, you know,\u201d Leon, 20, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And there was.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach diagnosed her with chronic renal disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unimaginable because she was very healthy,\u201d said Leon\u2019s mother, Monica Gutierrez, who played for the Lady Sharks in 1997. \u201cTo receive this type of news was like a piece of my heart being torn out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leon spent 26 days in the hospital. She was placed on dialysis to get rid of waste and unwanted water in the blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tiring,\u201d Leon said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to get out of bed or eat, just having needles sticking to your back is very uncomfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The road to recover was tough, at one point she was forced to take up to eight medications a day and do dialysis five times during a ten day stretch. As a result, Leon had to sit-out the entire 2009 season.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was depressed, sad and crying,\u201d Leon said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But her teammates were their to pick her up. They called her before each game and told her how much they missed her.\u00a0 Some of them flooded her room at Mount Sinai Hospital with get-well postcards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lady Sharks volleyball coach, Origines \u201cKiko\u201d Benoit, who has known Leon since she was four-years-old, was a constant visitor, staying for three hour intervals. Assistant coach, James Exley, gave her shark teddy bears.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Leon missed playing volleyball. After all, it has always been her one constant. Leon started playing volleyball when she was four-years-old.<\/span><\/p>\n

In high school at Colegio Ponce in Puerto Rico she was named the team\u2019s most valuable player in 2006 and 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her enthusiasm for the sport has been missed, her teammates said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she was not there it was quieter,\u201d said Yenifer Calcano a sophomore outside hitter on this year\u2019s team.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it was natural that when Leon was released from Mount Sinai Hospital the first thing she did was attend the team\u2019s practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, she is healthy again and back in the starting lineup. Leon hopes to guide her team to a National Championship and eventually play Division I volleyball.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leon said she is grateful to be on the court with her teammates, again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a miracle,\u201d Leon said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Bedrest: Edgaris Franchesca Leon spent 26 days in the hospital in the summer of 2009 due to a chronic renal disease that forced her to sit out the 2009 volleyball season. PHOTO COURTESY OF EDGARIS FRANCHESCA LEON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edgaris Franchesca Leon towers over her opponents on the volleyball court.\u00a0 At\u00a0 6-foot-1inches tall, Leon looks every bit the part of the physically imposing player she portrays on the court.\u00a0 Selected to the 2008 Southern Conference first team, Leon\u2014 a middle blocker on the Miami Dade College Lady Sharks volleyball team\u2014ranked 12th that year in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":24770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2749,2804],"tags":[56],"class_list":{"0":"post-24768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"category-kendall-campus","9":"category-volleyball","10":"tag-volleyball"},"yoast_head":"\nVolleyball Player Returns One Year After Battling Chronic Renal Disease<\/title>\n<meta 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