By Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Montgomery County bakery and Facebook played critical roles in saving a life and creating a new forever friendship.
Strangers met for the first time at Penn Medicine and there was already an intense, emotional connection. Check out the full story from CBS News 3 Philadelphia.
By Victoria Socha
The optimal treatment for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is living donor kidney transplantation, which offers improved health outcomes. Deprived neighborhoods are defined as those with low socioeconomic status, limited social cohesion, and reduced access to health care. According to Byoungjum Kim and colleagues, there are few data available on the role of neighborhood deprivation in assess to living donor kidney transplantation. Read the full article in DocWire News.
9News
Every nine minutes, a name is added to the waiting list for a life-saving organ transplant. The American Transplant Foundation is working to solve this crisis. Watch the story in 9News here.
If you need a kidney transplant, you must first be evaluated for a transplant by a transplant center (a hospital that does transplants – not every hospital does them). The evaluation is used to make sure you’re a good candidate for a transplant. This must happen before any potential living donors can be considered. Read more from National Kidney Foundation here.
By Tom Peters
Tom PetersMon, May 15, 2023 at 11:21 AM MDT·3 min read
Recent news about the failures in the U.S. organ transplant system has the nation talking about an important topic that I have spent much of my life working to improve.
As a transplant surgeon and advisor to the Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC), these discussions give me hope that much-needed change is coming. Read more in the Miami Herald.
By Miana Massey
BALTIMORE — More than 100,000 people nationwide are currently waiting for an organ transplant, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
“The need out surpasses the availability. Supply does not meet demand in this case,” Jennifer Verbesey, the transplant director of MedStar Health, said. Read more from CBS Baltimore.
Compassionate colleagues highlight the importance of living organ donations
By Sean Gorman
During the month of April, VCU Health News will be publishing a series of stories to mark National Donate Life Month, a national effort to spread awareness about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donations.
Jay Gould’s kidney disease had been slowly progressing for 30 years and he knew there was a possibility of needing to undergo a transplant one day.
That time finally arrived in 2022 as his declining kidney health put him in danger of having to start dialysis unless he received an organ transplant. His nephrologist, Todd W. Gehr, M.D., told Gould that the time for a new kidney was approaching.
Read the story from VCU Health News Center.
By Martha Gershun
Five years ago, I donated my “spare” kidney at the Mayo Clinic to a woman I read about in the newspaper. Though living with only one kidney has risks, I was not particularly concerned about my own health. The clinic’s medical evaluation was extremely thorough, and I knew their highly conscientious selection committee would not approve me to be a living donor if they were even the slightest bit concerned the procedure would cause me long-term health problems. Furthermore, I was assured at every step of the process that if my remaining kidney should fail or be damaged, I would “go to the top of the transplant waiting list.” Read the full story in STAT.
By Dr. Beje Thomas
Finding a living donor can shorten your wait.
Over 30 million people in the US are estimated to have Chronic Kidney Disease and almost 50% of patients with severely reduced kidney function are unaware of it. Options for patients with kidney function less than 20% are either kidney transplantation or dialysis. However, the wait can be several years for a deceased donor kidney transplant with about 100,000 people on the wait list. Many patients do not live long enough to receive a transplant with 13 people on the wait list dying every day. Read the full article from MedStar Health.
If you need a kidney transplant, you must first be evaluated for a transplant by a transplant center (a hospital that does transplants – not every hospital does them). The evaluation is used to make sure you’re a good candidate for a transplant. This must happen before any potential living donors can be considered. Learn more from the National Kidney Foundation.