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He died of a brain aneurysm, and his heart was preserved for donation with warm-temperature ‘perfusion.’ The technique may help others.

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The doctors said there was no hope. Alex Anaya was just 29, yet a weakened blood vessel had ruptured in his brain, and surgeons couldn’tsave him.

Family members decided that he should be removed from a ventilator, and they gathered at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to say goodbye. His heart would keep beating for a while on its own, but soon he would die.

Then the family was approached by a coordinator from Gift of Life, a nonprofit that arranges organ transplants in the Philadelphia region. She told them, gently, that it might be possible to restart Anaya’s heart and save someone else. But it would require the use of a new device to “perfuse” the organ with a warm solution of nutrients and oxygenated blood, allowing it to beat outside his body until it was time for the transplant.

Read full story, here.

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Kidney Transplant Rates Recovering After Plummeting Early in the Pandemic

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During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March-April 2020, kidney waitlist registrations and kidney transplantations plummeted in the United States, followed by encouraging recovery, investigators reported at the virtual American Transplant Congress 2021.

Allan B. Massie, PhD, and collaborators from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, compared expected with actual rates of transplant services from March to October 2020 using data from The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Kidney waitlisting dropped from 19% below normal in March to 45% below normal in May, then showed steady recovery through October, when new listings were only 6% below normal, the investigators reported. Waitlist deaths peaked at 72% above expected in March-April, declined to 7% above expected in June, then climbed again to 16% above expected in August, during a second wave of COVID-19 infection.

Read full article, here.

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Huntington Beach Man Receives First Minimally Invasive Double-Lung Transplant In US

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 Huntington Beach man has had a second chance at life after he received the nation’s first ever minimally invasive double-lung transplant. 57-year-old Frank Coburn was beginning his second chapter, enjoying life with his loving bride of more than 30 years, and the success of his two adult daughters, when the avid biker started experiencing shortness of breath.

“I would always cough on an intake, and I’d have to kind of belly breathe,” Coburn told CBS2 News This Morning’s DeMarco Morgan.

In March of 2020, he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.

Read the full story, here.

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Handyman donates kidney after being helped out of homelessness

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A handyman was honored to donate his kidney and pay it forward after another member of the community helped him out in his time of need.

Dan Reynolds was hired to do some work six years ago when he was spotted standing in the snow at a bus stop in Maryland.

Doug Shumway decided to give him a ride on that cold winter day and invited Reynolds to do some contracting work and had him fix some plumbing issues.

It was then that Shumway learned that Reynolds had been living out of a van for the last two years.

When he revealed he was homeless, Shumway invited Reynolds to move in with him. It wasn’t long before Reynolds became a fixture in the community doing work for neighbors.

Read full story, here.

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Every Breath You Take: The Life of a Lung Transplant

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When you have Cystic Fibrosis – a genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections – a lung transplant can be a life-saving surgery. But what if you’re not sure you want it? And if you do get it, what new challenges will they present to your newly-extended life? 

Hear an audio documentary by Audacious Executive Producer Catie Talarski that follows two CF patients for one year as they grapple with the choice to pursue lung transplants. Then, she catches up with one of the subjects 10 years later.

Listen to it here.

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Representative Brian Sims Donated a Kidney to Gay Neighbor

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Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims is a lifesaver. When he learned he was a perfect donor match for a gay man was dying of renal failure last year, he agreed to donate one of his kidneys. This week, over a year later, Sims tweeted he ran into the now-healthy recipient and his husband while the two men were having lunch. He also revealed that when his parents came to town, the group all shared a meal together.

“My recipient Alan and his husband John were sitting having lunch,” Sims tweeted of the chance encounter that occurred while he was walking to his office last month. “A perfectly normal, healthy, happy couple sitting in the sun enjoying each other’s company. It was perfection!”

Read full story, here.

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Reproductive Health & Transplant

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Check out one of AST’s educational videos.

“In this video, we discuss pregnancy and family planning post-transplant including information about contraception options and immunosuppressive medications.“

Watch the video, here.

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Understanding Your Lab Values

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People who develop chronic kidney disease may have some or all of the following tests and measurements. If you have kidney disease ask your doctor which tests you will have and how often they will be done. Speak to your doctor about your results. If your numbers are not in the normal range, ask how to improve them.

Learn more, here.

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Prohibiting Discrimination in Organ Transplant Process Under Consideration by Committee

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“State Representative Bronna Kahle delivered testimony before the House Health Policy Committee in support of her legislation prohibiting discrimination in the organ transplant process.

Kahle said that House Bill 4762 ensures that anyone who performs an organ transplant may not refuse to transplant an organ into an individual based solely on the individual’s disability. Further, the bill prohibits lowering an individual’s priority on the organ transplant waiting list simply because they are disabled.

Even though federal law bans organ transplant discrimination based on the presence of a disability, Michigan does not currently prohibit an individual from being denied a transplant surgery solely based on their physical or mental disability.

The plan remains under consideration by the committee.”

Read more, here.

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Simple medical device improves care after kidney transplantation

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“A team from Lawson Health Research Institute (LHSC), in Ontario Canada, has found that a simple medical device can reduce swelling after kidney transplantation. The wearable geko™ device, manufactured by UK-based, Sky Medical Technology Ltd and distributed in Canada by Trudell Healthcare Solution Inc., is a small muscle pump activator that significantly increases blood flow via painless electrical pulses. Patients using the device following kidney transplantation experienced shorter hospital stays and reduced surgical site infections by nearly 60 per cent.”

Read more, here.

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