MONDAY, Jan. 9, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A new way of allocating donor lungs that eliminates geographical restrictions could save more lives, new research suggests.
In early 2023, the current U.S. system, which looks for compatible candidates within a fixed radius, will be replaced by the Composite Allocation Score. The new score will prioritize a candidate’s medical needs. Read more in U.S. News & World Report.
This is Justin Anthony’s story:
I can hardly recognize the man I used to be. The past few months have changed me physically, mentally, and emotionally. I tried to brave it out, hold on to hope, and pray for a miracle.
A few months ago, my doctors advised that oral pulmonary hypertension medication was no longer working. I had to move on to infusions of Remodulin (treprostinil) or be listed for transplant. Each option posed its own challenges. Read the full story from Pulmonary Hypertension News.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered the pathways through which autoantibodies – immune proteins that mistakenly attack a person’s own body – leak out of blood vessels and cause primary graft dysfunction in some lung transplant recipients, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a potentially lethal injury to fragile transplanted lungs that occurs in the first days after a transplant operation and affects more than half of lung transplant recipients. The condition is the leading cause of early post-transplantation morbidity and mortality. Read the full article from Northwestern Medicine News Center.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a potential therapeutic target in the donor lung that can prevent primary graft dysfunction (PGD) in lung transplant recipients, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
GR Scott Budinger, MD, chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine and the Ernest S. Bazley Professor of Airway Diseases, was senior author of the study.
Read more in Medical Xpress.
Just over a year after receiving a double-lung transplant, a COVID-19 survivor is cycling 38-miles to raise funds for the nonprofit where he found support after his surgery.
Rick Bressler, Lock Haven, contracted the COVID-19 virus in March 2021, four days before he was scheduled to receive the vaccine. He was soon hospitalized and placed on a ventilator. Read the full story in NorthcentralPA.com.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a potential therapeutic target in the donor lung that can prevent primary graft dysfunction (PGD) in lung transplant recipients, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
GR Scott Budinger, MD, chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine and the Ernest S. Bazley Professor of Airway Diseases, was senior author of the study. Read the full story from the Northwestern Medicine News Center.
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.