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Tips on How to Handle PH and Transplant Baggage

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What is baggage? According to Merriam-Webster, it’s one of three things: suitcases, transportable equipment, or intangible things such as feelings and circumstances that get in the way. What kind of baggage do people living with pulmonary hypertension (PH) often take everywhere they go?

The answer: all of it!

In addition to emotional baggage, they have the burden of emergency preparedness and must have a suitcase packed and medical equipment and supplies ready for an unplanned trip to the hospital. Read the full story in Pulmonary Hypertension News.

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Giving a kidney started with giving knowledge

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Roxana Chicas, PhD, RN, a research professor in Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, rued her nontraditional academic path until a mentor reassured her: “The teacher always arrives when the student is ready.” 

That advice about timing resonated last month as she prepared to donate a kidney to her mentor, professor and faculty colleague. Professor and biostatistician Vicki Stover Hertzberg, PhD, who directs the school’s Center for Data Science, had been waiting nine months for a transplant after being diagnosed with kidney failure.

The two professors’ personal relationship is only one aspect of their remarkable story.
Read the full story from Emory News Center.

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Turning Tragedy into Connection, a Donor Family Bonds with a Transplant Recipient

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When Sara Miller was 12, her sister, Laura, was diagnosed with brain cancer and died within days at a hospital in Milwaukee. Shocked and reeling, Sara’s family was asked by the hospital’s organ procurement coordinator if they wanted to donate Laura’s organs.

The Miller family had never discussed organ donation before, but Sara felt certain that Laura, a high school freshman, would have wanted to help save a life. “I grasped onto the idea that she could potentially make a difference,” says Sara, who encouraged her parents to say yes, which they did. “It was a tiny glimmer of hope amid a terrible day.”
Read the full story on CareDx.com here.

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Husband Donates Kidney So His Wife Can Receive One

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When a local TV weatherman did a live broadcast from Hanley Elementary 25 years ago, he met a teacher who stole his heart.

On Tuesday, Nov.23, 20 years after they were married, he also gave her his kidney.

“I believe God brought us together for this moment in time,” Chip Washington, 64, said as he and his wife, Wanda, 62, prepared for their surgeries. Read the full story in The Institute here.

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Strangers Donating Kidneys: ‘Important Contributions’

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News stories abound of altruistic individuals donating their kidneys to strangers. These donations are based on the principle that a person should be willing to donate a kidney with no knowledge of the recipient’s identity or medical or personal circumstances, and with agreement that the outcome of the transplantation may not be known. Read more in Medscape.

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Access to kidney transplantation is improving for everyone, but more work remains to be done

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Organ donation and transplantation are saving more lives in the United States than ever before, thanks to concerted work by stakeholders from across the country: donor families, organ procurement organizations, transplant centers, the Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN), the hundreds of volunteers who serve on OPTN committees, and others.

I have witnessed this remarkable achievement firsthand as a transplant physician caring for people with kidney disease. I also witness the plight of people with end-stage kidney disease who languish on transplant wait lists, a situation that is compounded by the kinds of disparities seen in other aspects of health care. Read more in STAT News.

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Kidney Brothers Develop Bond for Life

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What happened between two families at Stanford Children’s Health bonded them forever.

While awaiting kidney transplants for their young boys, the two families—one from Hawaii, one from California—became friends. Families often become close during the long hours of dialysis, but they don’t often hear the hopeful news that a donor kidney might be a match on the same day. Read the full story from Stanford Children’s Health here.

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A glimpse into my journey: Lung transplantation for COVID-19

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Prior to November of 2020, if approached with the term ECMO or the words ventilator, tracheostomy, or lung transplant, I would have had a grossly rudimentary knowledge of most. Fast forward to January 2021, this would dramatically change as I would have an intimate understanding of what these were. In retrospect, this understanding comes with a high degree of respect for these tools and the people who use them to keep people alive. And that is exactly what they did for me.

In November of 2020, I contracted SARS-CoV-2, which resulted in my developing Covid-19. The disease ran unapologetically through my body. I had all the classic systems: sore throat, fever, body aches as I have never experienced and horrible fatigue. Realizing I was dealing with something worse than a common cold, I went to my primary care physician for a Covid test. I was instructed to isolate and rest as I waited for the results. After a day of having all these symptoms, I knew this test was going to be positive; and it was.
Read the full editorial in Wiley Online Library.

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Donors and recipients in six-way kidney transplant meet for first time

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Single donor triggers multiple transplants via ‘paired exchange’ approach

(SACRAMENTO)

The average time a person spends on the waiting list for a kidney transplant is two-and-a-half to three years. But thanks to one selfless individual willing to give life to another, three people in Sacramento did not have to endure that wait. 

Donors and recipients who participated in a six-way ‘chain’ kidney transplant at UC Davis Medical Center had the opportunity to meet one another for the first time at a celebration held during National Donate Life Month. Read the story from UC Davis Health.

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