The pediatric nephrology department at Banner Children’s – Diamond Children’s Medical Center gained a new faculty member last month.

Dr. Clare Lindner, pediatric nephrologist, faculty member and assistant professor to the division of nephrology for the department of pediatrics, moved to Tucson from Pittsburgh a few weeks ago for the job opportunity at the hospital. Prior to her move, Lindner completed a fellowship program in pediatric nephrology, which specializes in the treatment of children’s kidneys, at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Emmanuel Apostol, pediatric nephrology section chief and associate professor to the division of nephrology, ran the pediatric nephrology program at the Diamond Children’s Medical Center alone for many years before Lindner came to the UA, Lindner said. Lindner said she can now assist him by working at the hospital and seeing patients in the hospital clinics.

“Most patients that we have really aren’t that sick,” Lindner said. “We get a lot of people born with congenital kidney problems, and sometimes when they get older their kidneys fail, and they need to go on dialysis for a little while and then eventually get transplanted.”

In addition to the patients who need a transplant or dialysis, she also sees patients with other less severe ailments, such as high blood pressure.

Lindner received her Doctor of Medicine from Tel Aviv University in Israel and said she chose to practice this field because it was interesting and academic. Lindner said she also likes the fact that many of the kids are not that sick and respond well to treatments.

“For our kids that do get really sick, that’s unfortunate, but we often take care of a lot of kidney transplant patients and, actually, most of them do really, really well,” Lindner said. “It can be a very positive, uplifting field, which is nice.”

However, Lindner said sometimes her job can be difficult.

“I hate giving bad news, especially if you have to give someone really bad news, like tell someone their kid is going to need a transplant or that he is going to need to go on dialysis,” Lindner said. “I don’t know that there’s really a good way to do it. Certainly I’ve had good teachers who have modeled good ways to do it and to be optimistic, but I hate giving bad news. I like giving good news.”

Linder said a lot of what she does on a day-to-day basis is teach families.

“You think kidneys, and it makes you think of adults,” Lindner said. “Sometimes parents don’t understand what’s going on, [and] they’re like, ‘Why is my kid going on dialysis? He’s 5!’ So I think we do a lot of teaching. … That’s probably 50 percent of what we do, and it’s really rewarding. Parents are usually very appreciative of what we do, so that’s probably one of my favorite parts.”

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