Helping a swimmer reach the Olympics

Dr. Michael Kappelman, a pediatric gastroenterologist at UNC, has treated Winston-Salem native Kathleen Baker, for Crohn’s Disease since she was 15. Now 19 years old and in stable health, Baker is a world-class swimmer who recently qualified to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the backstroke.

Here in Chapel Hill, Dr. Kappelman was thrilled to hear the good news. According to an article in The New York Times, “When Dr. Kappelman, in North Carolina, found out that Baker had made the Olympic team, he said he called his wife and his parents and then stepped outside his office and announced the news ‘as if an amazing thing had happened to my own child.’”

In addition to treating patients, Dr. Kappelman also conducts research about Crohn’s Disease. In 2015, he received a five-year, $8 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to find the treatment for pediatric Crohn’s that is the most effective while causing the least side effects. Read that complete Carolina Story…

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