By Nancy Hernandez
News-Post Staff
Frederick NewsPost November 5, 2004

	Staff photo by Saul Stoogenke From left: Laurie Wolfe, 38; Geraldine Frank, 48; and Judy Culler, 53, have all been infected with Hepatitis C and have either received a liver transplant or are on a waiting list to do so.

FREDERICK -- Many people living and working in Frederick County may have hepatitis C, a disease that destroys the liver, and not even know it, according to Laurie Wolfe.

The lifelong Frederick resident knows what she's talking about. During a routine physical in 1989, her doctor "discovered something didn't feel right and started ordering tests."

One month, two liver biopsies, numerous blood tests and sonograms later, Ms. Wolfe, now 38, got the news that she had non-A/non-B hepatitis.

At the time, there wasn't even a name for the specific form of the disease.

"If people don't get their physicals and get tested, they are never going to know" until it may be too late to treat the problem, she said.

Now Ms. Wolfe has established an Organization, Hope for Hep C Foundation, to help others with the disease.

There is no cure for hepatitis C, but treatment can slow its attack on the liver, she said. Fatigue is the most common symptom of hepatitis C, but many people don't exhibit any symptoms.

Such was the case with Judy Culler, 53, who was diagnosed in 1994.

The Middletown resident said friends started telling her she needed to change her make-up because she looked funny. At 42, she figured it was merely time for a cosmetics update, but her family doctor, Michael Rudman, was worried cosmetics weren't to blame.

Despite her assurances that she felt fine, he performed blood tests. The result came back non-A/non-B hepatitis.

Dr. Rudman sent her to a specialist at Georgetown University Hospital who informed her on her very first visit that she was in desperate need of a liver transplant. She believes she contracted the disease from a blood transfusion she received following a hysterectomy.

Hepatitis C is transmitted by blood to blood contact only.

"People need to be very cautious," Ms. Wolfe said. "If you have the slightest wound or cut and (infected) blood comes in contact with that cut," you could end up with hepatitis C.

She believes she contracted the disease through a small cut on her thumb when she helped a stranger.

Three months before her diagnosis, she was dining at a local restaurant when she saw two men severely beating a third man. Ms. Wolfe and another friend went out to stop the fight.

"I'm not the type of person that can watch people beat on somebody," she said.

The men stopped briefly but soon continued their attack, leaving only after their victim lay lifeless on the ground.

"When I went to check on his condition, he reached up and asked me to help him," Ms. Wolfe recalled with emotion. "My hands were covered in blood."

The restaurant's doorman wouldn't allow her back in to wash her hands and forced everyone to leave. She tried to clean her hands in the snow but they remained stained. She drove home to wash, never suspecting that she, as well as the man she helped, might need medical attention. She never learned the victim's fate.

"All we knew was the police were on their way. Everybody was told we had to leave ... I don't know what happened to him," she said.

She does know that single moment in time has forever altered her life.

She recently learned that hepatitis C has caused cirrhosis of her liver and she needs a transplant. Earlier this year, she lost her job at a local home improvement store and the health insurance that went along with that job due to the disease, she said.

She now faces mounting medical bills and the fear that she won't be accepted by Medicare.

"There is so much mental stress, plus the physical part," Ms. Culler said.

Irritability, increased susceptibility to other illnesses, mental confusion, itching, depression and pain are some of the problems suffered by people with hepatitis C.

"It feels like the worst case of flu," said Geraldine Frank, 48. She was diagnosed in 1981 after she visited her doctor to find out why she was tired all the time. This month she celebrates four years as a liver transplant survivor.

Ms. Frank said, perhaps one of the most difficult thing to deal with is the stigma associated with hepatitis C.

"People just look at you like you have the plague," she said.

Robert Holste, 43, of Walkersville agreed.

"People automatically shy away," he said. "... If you had it, people at your job wouldn't want to sit at your desk and your own family may be afraid to touch you," he told listeners at a recent gathering at Ms. Wolfe's house.

There are so many things people don't understand about the disease, Ms. Frank said.

She and Ms. Culler have been battling for years to spread awareness and support within the Frederick community.

Ms. Frank started a local hepatitis C support group in May, 1999.

"I was tired of not knowing anybody else in this area who had Hep C," she said. "I thought there must be other people who have it."

Ms. Culler began a support group for transplant survivors a little while later, at the request of Dr. Rudman. Several years ago, the two women combined their groups to better serve hepatitis C patients and their families.

Ms. Culler was the catalyst for the establishment of the Frederick County Hepatitis Clinic, Inc. at 350 Montevue Lane in Frederick. The non-profit clinic was started in 1999 by Dr. Rudman -- Ms. Culler's physician -- to serve the working poor and under-insured.

Ms. Wolfe now is involved in the fight to improve the lives of hepatitis C patients as well.

Last month, she formed Hope for Hep C Foundation to raise awareness about the disease as well as funds for support groups and clinics, in Frederick and around the globe.

Her group plans monthly fund-raisers to earn enough money to bring Naomi Judd to Frederick County next May.

Ms. Judd has hepatitis C and is the spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation, which will conduct the county's third annual liver walk on May 14 at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School.

In conjunction with that event, Hope for Hep C Foundation plans to conduct its own fund-raiser with Ms. Judd as the draw.

Local hepatitis C victims hope bringing an international star to town will prompt a discussion about the disease here.

When Ms. Culler was diagnosed, "Frederick was way behind the times and still is," she said, referring to the county's reception and dissemination of information about hepatitis C.

Mr. Holste agreed. "If everybody stayed quiet about the disease, we wouldn't know anything," he said.

Visit www.HopeforHepC.bravehost.com or call 301-620-7486 for more information.