Retired Triangle TV meteorologist will have kidney transplant surgery today
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bill Reh, retired Triangle meteorologist, undergoes kidney transplant today.
- Reh was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease several decades ago.
- His wife of nearly 40 years, Shields, is donating her kidney.
After living for decades with a kidney disease, one local meteorologist is undergoing transplant surgery.
Bill Reh has polycystic kidney disease, a condition he was diagnosed with when he was in his 30s, CBS 17 reported. During the nearly 40 years he worked as a TV weatherman in the Triangle, the most significant symptom Reh experienced was high blood pressure.
But earlier this year, doctors told Reh that his kidney function had declined, and he needed a transplant, according to CBS 17, where Reh worked for 18 years.
It’s possible to wait a long time for a kidney transplant. According to the National Kidney Foundation, people at most transplant centers stay on the waitlist for an average of three to five years.
Having a living donor kidney transplant shortens the wait time. In Reh’s case, extensive exams proved that his wife, Shields, could donate her kidney. The couple have been married for nearly 40 years.
Who is meteorologist Bill Reh?
Reh was a meteorologist in the Triangle for almost four decades. He appeared for the last time as CBS 17’s weekday morning meteorologist in December 2022, when he retired at age 63.
He had been signing one-year contracts in the years leading up to his retirement, but in June 2022, the station countered his one-year contract suggestion with a six-month contract.
“It kinda helped me make my decision, because I’ve been hemming and hawing for years and I needed someone to say, ‘No, six months is what I’ll give you,’” Reh told The News & Observer at the time.
Before he started at CBS 17, Reh worked at WB22 (now CW22) and for 13 years at ABC11.
During his years as a TV weather reporter, Reh covered the Red Springs tornado outbreak of 1984, the deadly Raleigh tornado of November 1988, Hurricane Fran in 1996, Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and the snow storm in 2000.
Reh graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where he majored in meteorology and broadcasting. He also earned the American Meteorological Society Television Seal of Approval in 1984.
