As a survivor of an ailment that led to one of my kidneys to become infected, I am always cognizant of articles such as this. I was born with 3 kidneys and 4 ureters.

I knew my maternal great aunt was born with 4 kidneys.

After my father had bladder cancer, they discovered he had 3 ureters and two kidneys. I have no idea how that was all "hooked up".

My problem was that I had too many ureters (4) and only 3 kidneys. One ureter was like a garden hose that was left on. I would develop these infections and the pediatrician would put me on high doses of tetracycline--which was the antibiotic of choice in 1960.

The infections kept returning and I was rushed into emergency surgery in March of 1960 at Children's Hospital in Washington, DC.

Thankfully, I recovered and have had a long life, thanks to these wonderful surgeons who had no idea what they were getting in to. My mother also told me they had filmed the surgery because they'd never done it before.

This was basically exploratory surgery on a 1 year old baby.