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First-of-its-kind Transplant Surgery Saves 11-year-old

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“Two years ago, a 9-year-old Baltimore gymnast named Khloe Cox was rising through the competitive ranks, winning awards and following in the footsteps of her hero: Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles.

But all that changed one day in 2018, when her parents got a call from her coach. Khloe had fallen ill with a fever and abdominal pain. The young athlete turned out to have a rare stage IV neuroendocrine tumor that had started in her pancreas and spread to her liver. 

Khloe needed a dual liver-pancreas transplant, but given her age and the complexity of the surgery, only a handful of surgeons in the world could perform it. Among them was Srinath Chinnakotla, clinical director of pediatric transplantation at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.”

Read the full story, here.

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U.S. Army Veteran Gets Triple the Chance At Life, with Utah’s First Triple Organ Transplant

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“Decades of planning put physicians at University of Utah Health in the position to save a United States Army veteran whose life was hanging by a thread, as three of his major organs were failing.

“He was so, so, so, so sick,” said Dr. Craig Selzman, surgical director of the heart and lung transplant program at University of Utah Hospital. “We didn’t really think he had a chance.”

Keith Baker, 58, started with heart failure, a condition that worsened over time and ultimately caused irreparable damage to his kidneys. Not long after that, the Yuma, Arizona, native was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. With triple organ failure, he was not believed to be a good candidate for transplant, said Dr. Josef Stehlik, surgeon and director of the heart transplant program at the U.”

Read the full story, here.

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How to Make The Best Organ Donation and Transplant System in the World Even Better

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“Organ transplantation works for people who have end-stage organ failure. In almost all cases, it works better for people with kidney, liver, and lung failure than any other treatment available. People come to the organ donation waiting list because they know an organ transplant is a gift of life. That means that as good as our system is, it needs to be even better to be able to serve the more than 100,000 people waiting for organs at any given time.”

Read the full blog post from UNOS here.

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