Aria Moreno was excited when she walked into class on Hofstra University’s campus in Long Island. It was late August, her fourth week of medical school, and Moreno had volunteered to undergo an ultrasound as part of the day’s lesson on the gastrointestinal system.
It probably saved her half a kidney.
As the ultrasound wand hovered over Moreno’s abdomen, Amanda Aguiló-Cuadra, the class instructor, noticed dark patches over Moreno’s right kidney. She suspected a buildup of fluid caused by a blockage.
Aguiló-Cuadra said nothing. Per school policy, she waited until after class to pull Moreno aside and recommend that she see a urologist.
“It was kind of a big shock,” Moreno said, adding: “I had zero symptoms. I had no pain, no urinary symptoms. Nothing flag-worthy.”
Doctors eventually found and removed a dangerously large kidney stone. A typical person can pass a four-millimeter kidney stone naturally, although it’s often very painful. Moreno’s kidney stone measured four centimeters — 10 times larger, about as wide as a ping pong ball.
Moreno is back to normal life, but damage from the stone has left the 22-year-old with only 50 percent function in her right kidney and no guarantee it will improve. She’ll need to be careful with what medications she takes going forward.
If it had not been detected, “it very likely would have progressed, and she could have lost the entire kidney,” said David Battinelli, dean of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell on Long Island, where Moreno is enrolled.
Aguiló-Cuadra, a radiology resident who graduated from Zucker in 2024, said it was lucky this discovery happened early in the semester. Not only was it better for Moreno’s health, it preserved her privacy because her classmates did not know enough to question what they saw on the ultrasound display.
Medical students are largely healthy 20-somethings. Still, past ultrasound demonstrations at the school using student volunteers have uncovered gallstones and thyroid nodules, said John Pellerito, a co-founder of the ultrasound program at Zucker.
The school’s policy directs instructors to tell an affected student in a way that protects their privacy.
But before she did that, Aguiló-Cuadra wanted to look at Moreno’s other kidney without raising alarm.
She asked the student scanning Moreno to position the wand over Moreno’s left kidney while making an excuse about visualizing the spleen.
Moreno was out of class for two weeks recovering from surgery to remove the kidney stone. She sent Aguiló-Cuadra regular updates.
Her classmates sent Moreno study notes, but she didn’t need help with any renal topics ahead of her finals next week.
“Now I can tell you anything about a kidney,” Moreno said with a laugh.
The New Jersey native is back to exercising and her other passion, dancing. Despite an unexpected dive into kidney health, she wants to become a physician who specializes in the health of dancers.
Moreno said she is inspired by the tactful, compassionate way Aguiló-Cuadra informed her about what she’d seen on the screen.
“I hope to bring that kind of ease to all my patients,” Moreno said.
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