When 12-year-old Emma Rothman woke up in the hospital, she was surrounded by strangers using unfamiliar phrases like “medically-induced coma” and “organ donation.”
It was a Monday in 2011, and she had been in her pediatrician’s office for a diagnosis test. Read the full story on Syracuse.com.
Everyone who knows Kingwood resident Deryl McKenzie calls him “Santa.”
McKenzie, 71, has been a Santa Claus during the holiday season for more than four decades, but over the years, he truly became Santa. Read this heartwarming story in the Houston Chronicle.
At the end of 2007, Ebert Mahon’s family went on a cruise. When he noticed early in 2008 that he was gaining weight, he figured that the cruise’s all-you-can-eat buffets had taken their toll. In his late 40s, Mahon normally tipped the scales at 180 pounds. But soon enough, the number crept to 235. “Could I really have eaten that much on the 10-day trip?” he wondered. Read more about Ebert’s transplant journey on CareDx.com.
“I’d give my kidney for a …”
It’s not the most common idiom being bandied about, but you hear it from time to time, as a means of expressing a strong desire. Rarer, still, is the person who says, “I’d give my kidney.” Period. No qualifiers. Read the story in USA Today.
Even now, years later, Linda Jara’s voice resonates with notes that can only be fully appreciated by certain people – people like her who carry someone else’s heart.
Her tone is filled with gratitude. Awe. Contemplation. Thoughtfulness. Sorrow. Exuberance. The overwhelming feeling that someone else – a total stranger – made the ultimate sacrifice of allowing their own heart to beat in someone else’s chest. Read the full story from the American Heart Association.
What life is like following heart and double-lung transplant
Slowly, you begin to ascend. At first, you can’t even see the apex of your destination, so already you’re feeling anxious. As the climb steepens, you feel ambivalent, wanting to brave it out but also wondering if it’s too late to get off this ride.
At the top, your stomach drops, your heart pounds, your fists are glued to the safety bar, your eyes widen, and you whisper a final prayer, “Oh God, help me!” Read the full article from Pulmonary Hypertension News.
You just found out you need an organ transplant. Whether it’s a heart, kidney, liver or lung, there are some key fundamentals to keep in mind as you navigate your transplant journey. Who better to share advice than those who have been through it?
Get the full story on CareDx.com.
By Maureen McBride, Ph.D., Interim UNOS CEO
This morning, I delivered remarks before the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Board of Directors in St. Louis during our semi-annual meeting. In them, I outlined my vision for community-wide efforts in the days, weeks, and months to come. I discussed critical issues facing the national system and how we can move forward together, acknowledging where we must improve, challenges we must address, and opportunities we must identify to best serve patients.
To read her complete remarks, read the blog from UNOS.
After months in intensive care, Cesar Franco became the first person in Britain to have the operation because of the virus
“When I woke up I was confused. I remembered the doctors in St George’s hospital deciding to intubate me. But when I woke up from the intubation, I’d been transferred to another hospital, St Thomas’, and was on a machine that was keeping me alive. I wondered how things had gotten so bad and how I’d gone from being just ill to being, you know, very close to dying.”
Read the story in The Guardian here.
Scott Schneider, 59, misses teaching in-person classes.
Connections with his students and seeing that “ah ha” moment they express when a science concept finally clicks are among the aspects he loves most about the job he’s had for 30 years at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. Read the story from Michigan Live.