BACK-TO-BACK BOWL WINS FOOTBALL TEAM'S GOAL The Jayhawks are preparing for the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. and they hope that injuries heal before the game. SPORTS | 1B
KANSAN WRITERS BREAK DOWN BOWL
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
The Jayhawks will face the Golden Gophers on New Year's Eve; find out how they stack up. GAMEDAY | 8B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TERMINAL ILLNESS
VOLUME 120 ISSUE 78
Jon Lane, Tonganoxie freshman, is fighting an autoimmune disease that causes his body to reject his liver. In October, Lane posted a video on YouTube, voicing his support for presidential candidate Barack Obama based on his own medical situation and his belief that an Obama presidency would be better for those like Lane, whose chronic medical conditions make health insurance difficult to acquire. Among Lanes other afflictions, he was born with Colohoma, a rare congenital condition that causes a recurrent rash and infarction in the thorax.
X-RAYS COURTESY OF JON LANE
During Jon Lane's junior year of high school, he unknowingly ate a stress ball, a small balloon filled with lead pellets, while sleep walking. The pellets, visible in these X-rays, spread through Lane's intestines, causing severe lead poisoning, with lead levels at 20 times the acknowledged danger level for adults.
DYING FOR CHANGE
Two months ago, Jon Lane, a Tonganoxie freshman, posted a video on YouTube to ask that the country vote for a president who, he says, would change the health care system and help him live. Now all he can do is wait.
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
Jon Lane's small frame hides among the tubes and machines enveloping his bed in the intensive care unit of the University of Kansas Medical Center. A large tube protrudes from his mouth beneath an oxygen mask. A quarter-filled catheter bag hangs at the end of the bed. He can't hear because of fluid build-up in his ears and can't speak because of tubes supplying his body with oxygen. His blood is filtered every few hours to keep his kidneys from failing. If he could still talk, he would tell you that the autoimmune disease that has ravaged his
liver will kill him soon. That is, unless he gets a liver transplant.
On the YouTube video he posted a month before the presidential election, Jon talks about how electing Barack Obama could save him and others doomed by preexisting conditions by requiring heath insurance for everyone. In that grainy 10-minute video, he lifts up his shirt to show the red bruise over his enlarged and failing liver. Two months later, 40 days before Obama's inauguration, Jon lies, gravely ill, in a Kansas City hospital.
How he went from a state champion high school debater and straight.A student to fighting for his life includes
two medical calamities. One is a rare disease that is killing his liver, the other involves a stress ball, Doritos and Jon's tendency to walk in his sleep. Add the medical bills that only continue to grow, and one can see why Joy, a Tonganoxie freshman with a quirky sense of humor and a head of curly brown hair, concluded that his fate rested in the hands of a future president and a promise to change the health care system.
SEE CHANGE ON PAGE 5A
His freshman year of high school. Jon joined the debate team. After debate practice, when Jon was researching
INVESTMENTS IN HUMAN RESOURCES
X-RAYS COURTESY OF JON LANE
Doctors took X-rays of Lane's intestines each day once chelation therapy began. The chelation therapy was used to gather the lead pellets in Lane's intestines. During chelation therapy, a synthetic solution is injected into the bloodstream to grab foreign metals and removes them from the body through the kidneys.
HEALTH
Exercise, sleep, music help reduce finals stress
Stress and finals go hand-inhand. Professors of music and dance say students can take advantage of a number of relaxation strategies to
battle their way through the upcoming week. Listening to music, exercising and getting enough sleep are some of their suggestions.
Three coalitions announce their presidential candidates
STUDENT SENATE
Student Senate coalitions recently announced their presidential and vice presidential for the upcoming spring elections. The three parties running for
office in the 2009-10 school year are the incumbent United Students, new coalition Envision and Students for Liberty.
FULL STORY PAGE 8A
STUDY ABROAD
University of Iowa gets KU's program in Italy
The University's Italy study abroad program is now sponsored by the University of Iowa. For more than eight years, the University sponsored the business, journalism and communications program.
index
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
Classifieds. ... 4B
Crossword. ... 6A
Horoscopes. ... 6A
FULL STORY PAGE 2A
Opinion. ... 7A
Sports. ... 1B
Sudoku. ... 6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2008 The University Daily Kansan
JACKSON AUCTIONS ITEMS FOR CHARITY
Glittery glove and Neverland Ranch gates for sale. Celebrity news |6A
weather
TODAY
FRIDAY
4523
4127
Mostly sunny
SATURDAY
Partly cloudy
SATURDAY
51 45
Partly cloudy
6