“Organ donation and transplantation surgery came to a screeching halt in March 2020 when doctors feared bringing severely-ill immunocompromised patients into a hospital that was packed over capacity with a highly transmissible airborne infectious disease.
If a patient wasn’t in an intensive care unit (ICU) bed at the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they likely were not receiving a transplant at that time.”
Read more, here.
Maria Hoffman feels as though she has been left behind. Her adopted hometown of Charleston, S.C., is hopping – with restaurants and bars fully open, park concerts in full swing and maskless friends reuniting with hugs on streets.
Hoffman, 39, is fully vaccinated and eager to rejoin the world. But as a kidney transplant patient, she is hesitant to participate for fear of becoming infected. “Risk is very different for people in my situation,” she said. “I am 100% acting like I am not immunized.”
The state worker is among millions of immunocompromised Americans, about 3 to 4% of the U.S. population, for whom the shots may not work fully, or at all, and who are unsure of their place in a country that is increasingly opening up. Emerging research shows that 15 to 80% of those with certain conditions, such as specific blood cancers or who have had organ transplants, are generating few antibodies.
Read the full story, here.
“The Center for Organ Recovery & Education announced Monday that it recovered the liver from the oldest recorded organ donor in U.S. history, 95-year-old Cecil F. Lockhart of Welch, West Virginia.
The record was confirmed by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), and the recipient of Lockhart’s gift, a woman in her 60s, is doing well.
Lockhart’s family said he was moved to become an organ donor following the death of his son, Stanley, in 2010, after which Stanley healed the lives of 75 people through tissue donation and restored sight to two others through cornea donation.
Read the full story, here.
“Structural racism in health care is real, and three ways its manifestation can be seen and measured are in the treatment and health outcomes for patients with kidney disease and, ultimately, the likelihood that they will receive a lifesaving transplant.
“Unfortunately, the facts are incontrovertible,” said Paul Palevsky, MD, president of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). “People who identify as Black, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander are more likely to develop kidney disease, disproportionately progress to kidney failure, are less likely to be treated with home dialysis, and are much less likely to be referred, listed and receive a kidney transplant.”
Dr. Palevsky made his remarks while delivering his presidential address at the NKF’s 2021 Spring Clinical Meetings, held virtually this year due to the pandemic. His talk was followed by a keynote presentation from AMA Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH.”
Read full article, here.
“Pain is common among patients with stage 3 or higher chronic kidney disease (CKD), those receiving dialysis, and kidney transplant recipients, a new study finds.
In a systematic review and meta-analysis involving 116 studies and 40,678 individuals, 60% had pain, 48% had chronic pain lasting more than 3 months, and 10% had neuropathic pain, Samira Bell, MB ChB, of the University of Dundee in Scotland and colleagues reported in Kidney International.
Overall pain prevalence was lower among kidney transplant recipients (46%) compared with patients undergoing dialysis (63%) and patients with nondialysis CKD (63%). Individuals on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis had similar pain prevalence. Among patients with nondialysis CKD, those with stage 3 or 4 disease reported pain as often as those with stage 5 disease, probably because these patients received palliative care, according to the investigators.”
Read the full article, here.
“People with kidney disease should schedule dental visits for days that immediately follow a dialysis day. They should also follow these steps at each dental visit:
List your meds. Be sure that your dentist has a list of all your medications
Premedicate. Most physicians recommend that kidney disease patients take antibiotics before receiving dental treatments because they are at increased risk of infections due to the presence of the shunt used for dialysis. The shunt is a tube that is surgically attached to a blood vessel in the arm or leg of a patient with kidney disease so that it is connected to the dialysis machine during the dialysis process.
Place blood pressure cuff properly. Tell your dental professional or whoever is taking your blood pressure where your shunt is located and be sure that they place the blood pressure cuff on an arm or leg that doesn’t contain the shunt.”
Find out more information, here.
While COVID-19 continues to dominant the United States healthcare system, nearly 100,000 Americans are still on a waitlist for a kidney transplant and each day 12 patients die waiting for a kidney. National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Health Policy Director Miriam Godwin knows these statistics all too well and made the altruistic decision to take action and help others by becoming a living donor during National Donate Life Month in April. Like all incredibly selfless living donors, Godwin made a conscious choice to help others, but please don’t call her a hero.
“It’s difficult to live with the knowledge that some of the most vulnerable people in our society such as the elderly, communities of color, and those with limited financial means are waiting for kidney transplants, especially when kidney patients have been at such exceptionally high risk from COVID-19,” said Miriam Godwin, NKF Health Policy Director and a kidney transplant living donor. “It’s my job to make kidney transplants more accessible, but the tools to create system-level change are limited and take time. No one should be denied the opportunity for kidney health because of the circumstances of their birth. I became a living donor because I knew I could help one person right now, so I did. It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made.”
Read the full story, here.
“With over 5 million cases diagnosed in the United States each year, skin cancer is America’s most common cancer. Fortunately, skin cancer is also one of the most preventable forms of cancer. About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers and 85 percent of melanoma cases are associated with exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. By sharing facts about the dangers of unprotected exposure and encouraging people to check their skin for warning signs, we can and will save lives.
We can’t do this work alone.
In 2021, for the second straight year, Skin Cancer Awareness Month takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though many of us are separated, we can still unite against skin cancer, share the facts and help save lives.”
Learn more information, here.
“Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, and Rep. Michael Cloud, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, will hold a virtual hearing to examine the nation’s system for securing organs for transplant for patients suffering from organ failure.
More than 107,000 patients in the United States are waiting for an organ for transplant. Every day, an estimated 33 people in the United States die while waiting for their transplant. Hundreds of thousands more are on kidney dialysis and could benefit from a kidney transplant but are not even on a waitlist. The number of available organs for transplant does not meet this critical need. For the past four years, on average only 37,500 organs were transplanted annually, including around 31,000 organs from deceased donors and 6,500 organs from living donors.
Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized an OPO reform rule that it estimates will increase transplants by 5,600 to 7,300 per year. Unfortunately, the rule will not be enforced until 2026, while patients continue to suffer.
This hearing will highlight the urgent need to take immediate action to reform OPOs and obtain more organs for transplant, while uplifting patient voices and underscoring racial, geographic, and socioeconomic inequities in organ donation and transplant processes.”
You can watch the full hearing, here.
“He had one kidney removed, but when the tumor kept coming back over the years, radiation treatments damaged his other kidney.
“It was pretty tough. I didn’t feel well,” he said. “I’d mostly go home and sit around.”
Ward Sexton said he and his wife Robyn set their sights on getting their son a new kidney and tried to find a donor.
“Robyn isn’t a blood match, I was ruled out, so we said, ‘We’ll ask friends,'” he said.
Last year, they wrote a letter asking those who may be interested to get a blood test to see if they were a match for Gavin. The email was forwarded and landed in the inbox of Ann Chiumino, who works in administration at Sacred Heart Academy, where Gavin is a student. The two did not know each other, but Chiumino said she felt the need to answer the call.”
Read the full story, here.