Claire Ziemba had been out of the hospital for less than a day when her older sister started screaming.
The 20-year-old Duke University student had just undergone surgery for a 9-millimeter stone in her right kidney, then landed back in the emergency room hours later with vomiting and uncontrollable shaking as she passed fragments. Her sister Lilyana, 23, was 24 hours behind her. A CT scan taken after three rounds of fentanyl failed to touch her pain showed a 14-millimeter stone at her ureteropelvic junction, blocking flow into the ureter. She needed emergency surgery too.
