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I’m slowly learning to share my life with cystic fibrosis and transplant

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After struggling with writer’s block, a columnist looks within

By Jennifer Bleecher

My mother was recently cleaning out her attic, trying out the minimalist technique she’d seen on a Netflix show. In the process of deciding which items still bring her joy, she gathered a bag full of my school papers from childhood. Forty years later, she still couldn’t bring herself to throw them away. Instead, she delivered them to my house.

As I looked through the papers, it struck me how many short stories and poems were in the pile. And this was only a small sampling of my work, as no mother can keep every creation made by their child. It reminded me that I have always loved to write. Read the full story in Cystic Fibrosis News Today.

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For recipient of UCLA Health’s 10,000th kidney transplant, new organ provides new lease on life

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The 42-year-old lost more than 200 pounds and spent a decade on dialysis before receiving a new kidney last year.

By UCLA Health

Ray Jones was 31 when he was blindsided by the news that he had end-stage kidney disease. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been experiencing symptoms: He often felt sluggish and had a hard time catching his breath, and he’d also noticed swelling in his legs due to edema. At the time, though, given that he weighed about 450 pounds, he simply chalked up the symptoms as being weight-related. Read the full story from UCLA Health.

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Two Girls from New Jersey Receive Lifesaving Liver Transplants at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital

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Team from Newly Launched Pediatric Liver Disease & Transplant Program Performed the First-Ever Pediatric Liver Transplants at Hospital Within a Week of Each Other

Surgeons at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone and the NYU Langone Transplant Institute have successfully performed the first two pediatric liver transplants at the institution. The lifesaving surgeries were conducted within a week of each other, giving hope and a new lease on life to two young girls from New Jersey.

To address the rising incidence of liver disease in children and the critical need for quality care, Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital formed the Pediatric Liver Disease and Transplant Program this April.  Read the complete press release from NYU Langone Health.

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‘Make Every Breath Count’

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A double lung transplant recipient’s gratitude knows no bounds

By Laura McFarland

‘Make Every Breath Count’

A double lung transplant recipient’s gratitude knows no bounds | Photos by Jay Paul

BY LAURA MCFARLAND

AUGUST 13, 2023Expand

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Lung transplant recipient Sam Kirton at the National Donor Memorial at the United Network for Organ Sharing

“Are you ready to take your first breath?”

When Samuel Kirton’s wife, Susan, leaned over his hospital bed and asked him that question, he admits he initially shook his head no.

Kirton, who had received a double lung transplant the day before, knew he was at a point of no return. Read the full story in Richmond Magazine.

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1st ‘domino’ transplant performed in babies saves 2 girls born with heart defects

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When the Skaats family learned baby Mia needed a new heart they felt devastated. But Mia helped another family in domino heart transplant, a first in babies.

By Meghan Holohan

When Mia Skaats was only 10 days old, she began breathing rapidly, and her mom, Nicole Skaats, immediately knew something was wrong. Doctors eventually determined the newborn had cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart struggles to bump blood to the rest of the body, and she was in heart failure.

Mia needed a heart transplant, so when one became available, the Skaats family felt overjoyed their daughter, born in September 2022, would have a new chance at life. Check out the full story from NBC’s Today.

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Make-A-Wish Participant and Kidney Transplant Recipient Experiences a Day as a Doctor

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By Kristin Samuelson

Twelve-year-old Melanie Rodriguez Romo has dreamed of becoming a doctor since she was just three. So much so that she requested it as her Make-A-Wish following a life-saving kidney transplant.

A team-effort between Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the kidney and transplant teams at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Lurie Children’s kidSTAR Medical Education Program, her wish was granted. Read the full story from Northwestern Medicine News Center.

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Medical Mystery: A Healthy Hiker Couldn’t Catch Her Breath

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It wasn’t a heart attack. So why was the active 59-year-old’s heart suddenly failing?

By Rachel Nania, AARP

About a month before Beth Ramsey started feeling crummy, she was hiking a glacier in Iceland. So, when she began having shortness of breath a few weeks after her 2022 trip, the then-59-year-old elementary school principal assumed it was bronchitis or another common illness. Read the full article from AARP.

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Yours Truly: A Heartwarming Romance Inspired by Best-Selling Author Abby Jimenez’s Kidney Disease Diagnosis

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New York Times bestselling author of Part of Your World and Food Network champion Abby Jimenez is back with another smash hit–Yours Truly. In this riveting romance, Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is quickly changing. She gets a divorce, her brother is in kidney failure, and the promotion she wants might go to a new doctor, Dr. Jacob Maddox. Just when she’s decided to hate Dr. Maddox, he donates a kidney to her brother and changes the course of their relationship forever. Read the full Q&A from the National Kidney Foundation.

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How a double-lung transplant affected my body and self-image

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Accepting the scars and a new physique wasn’t easy

By Lara Govendo

After I had a double-lung transplant six years ago due to cystic fibrosis (CF), it was hard to look at myself in the mirror.

I would stare at my stapled chest, and feelings of disbelief and grief would bubble to the surface like never before. Thoughts raced through my mind: What will people say when they see my scars and disfigured chest? How will I ever feel comfortable in my own body again?
Read the complete article in Cystic Fibrosis News Today.

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