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One patient, Mariah Jacqueline Scott, 32, who lives in Highland Park, N.J., has had two hip replacements, two shoulder replacements, a splenectomy, a gall bladder removal and a tonsillectomy because of the disease.

“People carried him by hand for more than 1 kilometer. We did a splenectomy and he has a bowel injury. We hope he will make it,” he said.

Our rescue hound takes prescription medications to manage an autoimmune skin disease triggered by a May splenectomy.

I've had my scar for 47 years, in the same place as Mr. Petrow's but mine is from an exploratory laparotomy plus splenectomy.

He did not have a regular ­primary-care doctor, and other than having had a splenectomy 35 years earlier after an auto accident, he was healthy.