To this day, Hale said he had never heard of another athlete having what he described as a case of an extended flu. IgA (short for immunoglobulin A) nephropathy, also called Berger's disease, is a rare chronic disease that damages the filtering units of the kidney. There is no cure.
The disease is most commonly found in men from their teens to their 30s. Twenty percent to 40 percent of patients develop end-stage kidney failure about 20 years after finding they have it.
"I don't think it's as bad as it sounds," Hale, 24, said. "I don't know how rare it is as opposed to anything else."
Hale played 65 games for the Devils in 2003-2004, finishing tied for second with Paul Martin among the team's defensemen with a plus-12 rating.
RSS