Thursday, March 29, 2012

Growing organs for transplants

Regenerative Medicine has exciting possibilities for the future of medicine as scientists are learning to use stem cells to replace defective cells and attempt to restore normal function in a wide range of organs. I had the privilege of taking a tour of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto and seeing this research first hand.

At any given time there are up to 86-thousand people worldwide waiting for donor organ. Until researchers can make regenerative medicine reality, you can make a difference by being an organ donor."

By Dr. Jay Adlersberg
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Organ transplants have progressed rapidly in recent years, but organ recipients still need medication to suppress the immune system.

One exception is a transplant between identical twins and that's presenting researchers with an exciting goal.

It sounds like something out of science fiction, but it's happening right in our lifetime, and you will be hearing more and more about it.

The solution to finding a organ like one that might come from an identical twin is to grow one, and that field is called regenerative medicine.
It was just about a year ago that Ernesto Boleaga learned his symptoms - fatigue, anemia and swollen feet were caused by severe kidney failure. He would need a transplant. His twin brother's response was immediate.

"I have two kidneys. I said, 'If I can give you one of my two kidneys, please take it,'" Jose Luis Boleaga said.

Because they're identical twins, the brothers have the same genetic makeup, so Ernesto's body accepts his brother's kidney as its own.

Ernesto's immune system won't reject it as it would one from an unrelated donor.

For most people, drugs that suppress the immune system help stop the rejection process. But they cause side effects, and over time, the body's immune system "wins" and damages the new kidney.

"I think the challenge today is how do you make that organ last for a lifetime?"Mikel Prieto, M.D., Mayo Clinic transplant surgeon, said.

The answer may be in regenerative medicine that is, reproducing an organ that is essentially genetically identical to the patient getting it.

Right now, researchers in the lab are able to turn stem cells into other cells such as kidney cells. The hope is that one day they will be able to grow those cells into life saving organs for people like Ernesto.

"We hope that sometime in the future we will be able to reproduce an organ that is essentially genetically identical to the patient getting it. When we achieve that, then basically every transplant will be like doing a transplant between identical twins," Prieto said.

At any given time there are up to 86-thousand people worldwide waiting for donor organ. Until researchers can make regenerative medicine reality, you can make a difference by being an organ donor.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Man helps improve public education for organ transplants in Ontario, Canada

Richard Hutton, NiagaraThisWeek.com

One man has made a difference.

After the death of a close family member in March 2010, Joe Menna thought there could be a better way to make sure patients who are possible candidates for organ transplants have the proper information available to them to make informed choices when it comes to their medical care.

“It’s about empowering patients and their families and the public at large,” the Niagara Falls man said of changes he would like to see in the way the Trillium Gift of Life Network can improve data availability and public education when it comes to organ transplants. “How to do that is through public education.”

Joe Menna - Photo: Richard Hutton

In the fall of 2011, Menna put pen to paper and wrote a proposal outlining changes he felt are necessary. Among those changes are things such as available data on gender, blood type, age demographics (for wait list and transplantation), wait times by organ, removals from waiting list (by death or other reason) and life expectancy after transplant.

Menna came up with his list simply by researching what is available in other areas including British Columbia (B.C. Transplant) and south of the border through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Organ Transplant and Procurement Network.

“Ontario lags behind other jurisdictions,” Menna said.

With the help of Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, Menna was able to set up a meeting with the staff from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care as well as representatives from TGLN.

“They agreed to accept some aspects of the proposal,” Menna said.

TGLN has agreed to begin posting data on gender, blood type and age demographics “in the next few weeks” on TGLN’s website.

That’s according to TGLN’s president and chief executive officer Ronnie Gavsie.

“It’s a great example of what can be done,” Gavsie said. “We will continue trying to improve and expand on our reporting. We’ve accelerated or work in certain other areas as well.”

The TGLN will be implementing all of Menna’s ideas in the coming months, Gavsie added.

“We are grateful to him. It’s a step forward.”

Menna, meanwhile, said he would continue working with TGLN on how to improvements can be made to how to best get information out to the public.

“I know this is going to help a lot of people,” Menna said. “They’re going to have all of the information they need.”

According to Gavsie, there are more than 1,500 people awaiting organ transplants of some kind in Ontario.


“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dick Cheney's Heart Transplant At 71 Spurs Age Debate

I don't believe that age should be the only criteria when assessing a potential candidate for an organ transplant. Some people are more fit at age 70 than others at age 50. Each individual should be considered on his or her physical fitness and the probability of having an optimal outcome of the transplant.


More than 3,100 Americans are waiting now for a new heart, and about 330 die each year before one becomes available.

Reporter: CBS/AP (Posted by Melissa Brunner wibw.com)
(CBS/AP) Did former Vice President Dick Cheney get special treatment when the 71-year-old got a heart transplant on Saturday? Doctors are saying it's unlikely the Republican septuagenarian was bumped ahead of thousands of younger people who were also in line to get a new heart.

"You can't leapfrog the system," said Dr. Allen Taylor, cardiology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. "It's a very regimented and fair process and heavily policed."

More than 3,100 Americans are waiting now for a new heart, and about 330 die each year before one becomes available. When one does, doctors check to see who is a good match and in highest medical need. The heart is offered locally, then regionally and finally nationally until a match is made.

Cheney's case reopens debate about whether rules should be changed to favor youth over age in giving out scarce organs. As it stands now, time on the waiting list, medical need and where you live determine the odds of scoring a new heart - not how many years you'll live to make use of it.

"The ethical issues are not that he had a transplant, but who didn't?" Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at Scripps Health in La Jolla, Calif., wrote on Twitter.

Cheney received the new heart Saturday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., the same place where he received an implanted heart pump that has kept him alive since July 2010. It appears he went on the transplant wait list around that time, 20 months ago.

Cheney had severe congestive heart failure and had suffered five heart attacks over the past 25 years. He's had countless procedures to keep him going - bypasses, artery-opening angioplasty, pacemakers and surgery on his legs. Yet he must have had a healthy liver and kidneys to qualify for a new heart, doctors said.

"We have done several patients hovering around age 70" although that's about "the upper limit" for a transplant, said Dr. Mariell Jessup, a University of Pennsylvania heart failure specialist and American Heart Association spokeswoman. "The fact he waited such a long time shows he didn't get any favors."

Jessup and Taylor spoke Sunday from the American College of Cardiology's annual conference in Chicago, where Cheney's treatment was a hot topic.

Patients can get on more than one transplant list if they can afford the medical tests that each center requires to ensure eligibility, and can afford to fly there on short notice if an organ becomes available. For example, the late Apple chief Steve Jobs was on a transplant list in Tennessee and received a new liver at a hospital there in 2009 even though he lived in California.

That's not done nearly as often with hearts as it is for livers or kidneys, said Dr. Samer Najjar, heart transplant chief at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Each transplant center decides for itself how old a patient it will accept, he said.

"Most centers wouldn't put somebody on" at Cheney's age, said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan, who has testified before many panels on organ sharing issues.

"I've been arguing for a long time that the system should pay more attention to age because you'll get a better return on the gift" because younger people are more likely to live longer with a donor organ, Caplan said.

There have been other recent reports of successful heart transplants in septuagenarians.
In Canada, a man described as a home builder and philanthropist received a heart transplant when he was 79 at the University Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He lived for more than a decade with the organ, dying in 2010 at age 90.

In Texas, a 75-year-old retired veterinarian received a heart last year from a 61-year-old donor, but he had been a marathon runner and was presumably healthier than many of his peers.

Cheney will have to take daily medicines to prevent rejection of his new heart and go through rehabilitation to walk and return to normal living. He was former President George W. Bush's vice president for eight years, from 2001 until 2009.

About 5.8 million Americans suffer from heart failure and other 57,000 will die of it this year.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Ex-US Vice-President Dick Cheney has heart transplant

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who has suffered five heart attacks since his late 30s, underwent a heart transplant Saturday after more than 20 months on a transplant list, according to his office.

BBC News
Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant and is now recovering in hospital, his office has said.
It said the surgery had been carried out on Saturday at the Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia.
Mr Cheney, 71, has had heart problems for much of his adult life, suffering five heart attacks since the age of 37.
Mr Cheney served as former President George W Bush's deputy from 2001 to 2009.
"Although the former vice-president and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," Mr Cheney's spokeswoman said in a statement.
She also revealed that Mr Cheney had been waiting for a transplant for more than 20 months.
The spokeswoman provided no further details.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Friday, March 23, 2012

China to Phase out Prisoner Organ Donation

ABC News
BEIJING March 23, 2012 (AP)

China will abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years and try to spur more citizens to donate, a top health official says.

Rights groups call transplants from condemned prisoners a form of abuse and allege that the government, which executes far more people than any other nation, pressures them to donate organs. The government, however, says prisoners volunteer, and that the change is being made because prisoners are less healthy than the general population.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying Thursday that prisoner organ donations are not ideal because condemned inmates have high rates of fungal and bacterial infections.

"Therefore, the long-term survival rates for people with transplanted organs in China are always below those of people in other countries," Xinhua paraphrased Huang as saying.

Organ donations from condemned prisoners will be abolished within five years, Xinhua quoted Huang as saying at a conference in Hangzhou in eastern China.

Xinhua said hospitals will instead rely on a national organ donation system that is being set up. It said trial systems have already been launched in 16 provinces.

China refuses to say how many prisoners it puts to death each year. Amnesty International estimates it is in the thousands, far more than the executions in all other countries combined. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation estimates that China executed 5,000 people in 2009.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Specialty license plate will raise awareness, funds for organ donation in Michigan

By Troy Reimink, mlive.com



Starting this summer, Michigan motorists will be able to purchase a specialty fund-raising license plate that will support organ donation efforts across the state.
The organ and tissue recovery organization Gift of Life is celebrating the passage of legislation authorizing the plate, which Lt. Gov. Brian Calley will sign in Lansing this afternoon. Proceeds from the plate will promote organ, tissue and eye donation and the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.
The license plate, which will bear the Gift of Life logo, will be available after June 30 for $35 above the standard cost of a Michigan plate. Of that, $10 will go to the new Thomas Daley Gift of Life Fund, named for the son of State Rep. Kevin Daley (R-Lum). Thomas Daley died last year at 23 following a tree-cutting accident, and his organs helped save the lives of four critically ill patients in Michigan.
The law's passage was a bipartisan effort. The bill was sponsored by and is named for State Sen. John Gleason (D-Flushing), who received a kidney from his sister in 2001, and received the support of Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. 

"I am deeply humbled and honored that my colleagues chose to name this act after me. There is no gift more precious than organ donation,” Gleason said in a statement last month. “There are more than 100,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ. I hope the creation of this plate and fund will help to educate the public and save more lives."
In a statement, Gift of Life CEO Richard Pietroski said, “With 3,000 people waiting in this state today for an organ transplant, we are hoping this new license plate will serve as one more reminder in Michigan that giving new life, new sight and new mobility is as selfless as it gets. We can’t wait to see these plates on the road.”


“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Organ donation crusader Hélène Campbell cherry-picks her next target

By Barbara Turnbull, Life Reporter, The Toronto Star

Hélène Campbell and The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson at the Toronto premiere of the movie. The Ottawa woman, who is on the transplant waitlist for new lungs, is on a crusade to increase donor registrations nationally.
CAMPBELL FAMILY PHOTO
Hélène Campbell has set her sights on a national scope to increase organ and tissue donation registration.
This time she’s going after Don Cherry and Hockey Night in Canada.
Campbell, who suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, came to the public’s attention in January, shortly after being placed on the waitlist for a double lung transplant. The Ottawa woman, who now lives in Toronto to be close to General Hospital, had started an awareness campaign and got Justin Bieber to tweet his support. Donor registrations started climbing immediately, with 1,760 new registrations in Ontario the next week.
The 20-year-old then targeted Ellen DeGeneres, and was surprised with a Skype appearance during a taping of the talk show, where DeGeneres declared her belief in organ donation and told Campbell she would to fly her to Los Angeles as soon as she can travel after her transplant. Meanwhile, DeGeneres arranged for Campbell to attend Monday’s Canadian premiere of The Hunger Games in Toronto.
After the Feb. 16 appearance on Ellen, 5,027 registered the next week in Ontario alone.
Before Campbell started her campaign, there were typically 50 online registrations a day at Ontario’s beadonor.ca.
The daily average has been about 180 since, which is giving hope and joy for future recipients, Campbell says. The province also has an online campaign running currently, which is helping impact the numbers, but there’s no denying the power of social media and celebrity.
That’s where Twitter newcomer Don Cherry comes in to the picture.
Campbell’s Twitter @alungstory account is approaching 10,000 followers who are now after Cherry to bring the awareness crusade to Coach’s Corner to help “ice the shortage.”
But why Cherry?
“A different demographic and it’s across Canada,” Campbell says. “It reaches the demographic of people who have actually signed donor cards, but they need to know that’s not enough.
“I want them to register online and just talk about it with their families,” she adds. “Encourage people to have the talk once, just have a discussion about it. A lot of people are afraid to talk about (death). Why not do it now and be done?”
Trillium Gift of Life Network, the provincial agency mandated with organizing organ and tissue donation and transplant, just announced Ontario’s registration rate is now at 21 per cent. That’s up from 2009’s 18 per cent, but there is much to do to make a true difference for the 1,500 waiting for life-saving organ transplants in Ontario at any given time. By comparison, the U.S. has 35 per cent of its citizens registered on online lists.
Campbell recently suffered her own setback. She got “the call” on March 11, at 3:30 a.m. that there was a match. She and her mother made frantic phone calls, having difficulty rousing the family.
“I’d been told before that there was such a thing as a false alarm,” she told the Star. “I told myself ‘Don’t think about this too, too much, it could be a false alarm.’ I was prepared if it was and I was prepared if it wasn’t.”
The transplant was cancelled a few hours later when it was deemed the lungs were not suitable.
Although not the outcome she had hoped for, Campbell was able to attend Monday night’s premiere of The Hunger Games, which she would have missed if the surgery had gone ahead.
“I met Liam (Hemsworth) and Josh (Hutcherson), who play Peeta and Gale,” Campbell says. “I got pictures with them and I got signatures.
“My last name is Campbell and my joke is ‘I Campbell-ieve it.’”
But the advancing illness has her feeling “not the best,” she admits.
“My energy is lower and my coughing has picked up,” she says. “Overall I feel kind of crummy. But there’s not much I can do about it, it’s part of this. So you just embrace what you have and keep going.”
Her lung capacity, shrinking from the disease she was diagnosed with last October, now sits at 20 per cent. “It’s a scary number because it just keeps getting smaller, but you don’t dwell on it. The only thing that trumps fear is hope.”
So it’s back to her awareness campaign. She gets strength from what the numbers tell her.


“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Exercise Training Ups Post-Transplant Functional Recovery

I can't stress strongly enough the importance of regular exercise for an optimal recovery from an organ transplant. This April I will celebrate the tenth anniversary of my lung transplant and I'm in better physical shape than I've ever been. My weight is normal for my body type and blood pressure was 110/64 at my last checkup. I've been exercising regularly (YMCA member) since my transplant and thank the physiotherapy team at the hospital for the three-month post transplant program that got me started in the right direction and motivates me to this day.

Participation in supervised exercise training for three months following hospital discharge for lung transplantation significantly improves physical functions and cardiovascular morbidity for patients during the first year of recovery, according to a study published online March 5 in the American Journal of Transplantation.

DoctorsLounge
FRIDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Participation in supervised exercise training for three months following hospital discharge for lung transplantation significantly improves physical functions and cardiovascular morbidity for patients during the first year of recovery, according to a study published online March 5 in the American Journal of Transplantation.

To investigate the effect of supervised training on functional recovery and cardiovascular morbidity up to one year after lung transplantation, D. Langer, of the Catholic University of Leuven in Heverlee, Belgium, and associates randomly allocated patients older than 40 years with an uncomplicated postoperative experience to a three-month exercise training group (18 patients completed trial) or a matched control group (16 patients).

After one year, the researchers found that the daily walking time for treated patients was 85 ± 27 minutes, compared with 54 ± 30 minutes for those in the control group (P = 0.006). Quadriceps force, six-minute walking distance, and self-reported physical functioning were all significantly higher in the intervention cohort (P = 0.001, 0.002, and 0.039, respectively). Treated patients had significantly lower 24-hour ambulatory blood pressures.

"Based on these results, patients should be strongly encouraged to participate in an exercise training intervention after lung transplantation," the authors write.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Mom returns home after double lung transplant

Miss Kerr, from Adlington, said she could never thank her anonymous donor or their family enough for the gift of life. She added: “They have just given me this chance now to have a life and to spend every minute of every day enjoying it."

The Bolton News

A mother who underwent a double lung transplant is back home — in time to celebrate Mother’s Day with her children.

Natalie Kerr was afraid she would not live to see her children grow up after she was given a death sentence four years ago when she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension.

But she is now living without the aid of administered oxygen and is looking forward to the future with Brandon, aged nine, and Isabelle aged four.

The 30-year-old said: “When I think I am breathing with somebody else’s lungs, I am just so thankful.

“They have given me these lungs and they are actually working.

“I feel I have a duty to look after them. I wish I could show that person how much I am using my lungs and making the most of every moment.”

Following her diagnosis, the brave former Royal Bolton Hospital nurse never gave up hope and, with the help of The Bolton News and generous readers, raised £40,000 ($63,000) for stem cell treatment in America in 2009 to prolong her life.

In recent weeks her condition deteriorated, leaving her weak and afraid she would not live to see the end of the year.Miss Kerr, who had become increasingly reliant on administered oxygen, was finding everyday activities a struggle and was regularly passing out.

Just as she was beginning to give up hope, a donor was found for a double-lung transplant, and last month she underwent the operation that would change her life.

Miss Kerr was alone at home when she received the call — at 9pm on Thursday, February 16.

She immediately rang her parents, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary in London, but managed to get on the last train home to be with their daughter as she underwent a series of tests, before being told at 5am she was a match.

While being wheeled into theatre for the eight-hour operation, she admits she was “very nervous”
but sent her son a text message saying how much she loved him.

After the operation at Wythenshawe Hospital, Miss Kerr was transferred to intensive care and her family was warned she may be in hospital for more than six weeks.

But she amazed doctors and was allowed home early — just three weeks after the operation — and in time to spend Mother’s Day with Isabelle and Brandon, something she believes was meant to be.

It is still early days, and Miss Kerr has to wait for three months to find out if the operation was completely successful, but she says she can already feel a difference.

On Wednesday, Miss Kerr picked up Brandon from school for the first time since her operation — and was greeted by a round of applause from the other parents.

She said: “It is strange being able to breathe easily. I can actually feel the lungs working inside me.”

Miss Kerr, from Adlington, said she could never thank her anonymous donor or their family enough for the gift of life.

She added: “They have just given me this chance now to have a life and to spend every minute of every day enjoying it."

“I don’t want to go to sleep in case I miss anything.”

She is hoping to take her children to Disneyland and she and her family are determined to use her experience to encourage more people to join the organ donor register.

Her father, Eric Kerr, aged 54, said said: “I really would encourage people to sign up to donate their organs because there are so many people waiting.”

For more information about the donor register call 0300 1232323.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Plymouth, UK baby has a year to live unless a new liver is found

Plymouth Herald

A BABY boy from Mutley faces a desperate wait for a new liver which he needs to survive beyond the next year.

Koby Graf, just six months old, was born with a rare condition, Biliary atresia, which means his liver ducts are blocked and cannot process toxins produced by his body.

Koby Graf
Having undergone one failed kasai operation to open up his bile ducts he and his parents, Linh and Perry Graf, are now living on a one-hour standby in case a liver becomes available from someone who has died.

“Without the liver transplant he will have 12 months to live,” said his father Perry.

“If a suitable donor doesn’t become available it’s likely that Linh will undergo a major operation to donate part of her liver to Koby, as she’s the healthier out of us both,” the 37-year-old added.

“This is a real worry as it could risk her life and health too.

“He’s always so happy. If you saw everything going on inside you wouldn’t be able to match the patient to the person on the outside – it’s that which keeps us going.”

The pair who met when Perry taught English in Vietnam, are now urging the public to sign up to the NHS organ donor register to help save lives like little Koby’s.

“It’s so important people think about signing up to the register. I think it would be an honour to save someone’s life after you die,” Perry said.

Koby’s condition means even with a successful transplant his life expectancy would be vastly decreased and he might not see through his teenage years.

But Perry said he and his wife treasured the time they had already spent with Koby, who is having to take a cocktail of drugs. Due to his medication needs it is unlikely he will get to know his family in Vietnam with the difficulty of travelling.

Around one in 15,000 babies are born with Biliary atresia and symptoms start with neonatal jaundice, a common phenomenon which leads to the yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes. The liver, one of the most complex organs in the body, has no nerve endings meaning for the time being Koby is in no pain.

But the couple said they were now just starting the journey down a long and difficult path stretching out ahead of them.

“We’re aware this is just the beginning. He will start to get more sick and things will be hard for him. There is a good chance he might die before, during or after the operation.”

Perry’s Mutley grandmother, Damaris White, is urging the public to support her on a gruelling sponsored cycle from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

She aims to raise money for King’s Hospital in London, liver specialists who have treated Koby.

The 68-year-old said: “In gratitude for the quality of care he has received so far and in anticipation of further care through his transplant and hopefully beyond, I felt I had to raise funds for King’s in the only way I thought I could – by cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End.”

Damaris will complete the feat with the help of her daughter, Annabelle, a personal trainer.

She added: “This is a huge challenge for a lady who will never see 60 again and who, much to her personal trainer daughter’s despair, has ‘let herself go!’”

Her eldest daughter, Natasha, will drive along with her in a mobile home in which they’ll sleep over three weeks. To support Damaris click on virginmoneygiving.com/damariswhite.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sugary Drinks Tied to More Heart Attacks

As organ transplant recipients we must follow a diet that keeps our weight at normal levels and does not contribute to cardiovascular disease or diabetes. This study is an eye opener for me because I had no idea that as little as one cola a day could put me at risk for a heart attack. It's diet drinks only for me from now on.


This study found that men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study had a significantly higher risk of a myocardial infarction if they consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages. The same risk was not apparent for artificially sweetened beverages."

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: March 12, 2012

Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Men who frequently drink sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages may be putting themselves at risk of a heart attack, an observational study showed.

In a study of male healthcare professionals, those who consumed the most sugary drinks -- a median of 6.5 per week -- were 20% more likely to have a myocardial infarction (MI) during follow-up than those who never drank them (RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.33), according to Frank Hu, MD, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.

A similar relationship was not seen for consumption of artificially sweetened diet beverages, they reported online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"These results, as well as those from other observational studies and trials, support recommendations to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in order to prevent cardiovascular disease," the authors wrote.

Sugar-sweetened beverages have been associated with weight gain and type 2 diabetes, but few studies have examined the relationship between the sugary drinks and coronary heart disease.

Hu and colleagues looked at data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up study, a prospective cohort study of mostly white men who were ages 40 to 75 at baseline in 1986.

The current analysis included 42,883 participants after excluding those with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline.

The men reported their consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages at baseline and every four years using a food frequency questionnaire. At baseline, the average intake was 2.5 sugar-sweetened beverages and 3.4 artificially sweetened beverages each week.

Over 22 years of follow-up, there were 3,683 incident coronary heart disease cases, defined as fatal or nonfatal MIs.

The greater risk of having a heart attack in the quartile with the greatest consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was significant after controlling for numerous potential confounders, including age, smoking, physical activity, alcohol, multivitamins, family history, diet quality, energy intake, body mass index, pre-enrollment weight change, and dieting.

Further adjustment for self-reported high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure, as well as diagnosed type 2 diabetes, only slightly weakened the association.

"This suggests that sugar-sweetened beverages may impact on coronary heart disease risk above and beyond traditional risk factors," the authors wrote.

When treated as a continuous variable, each additional serving per day of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with a 19% greater relative risk of coronary heart disease (P<0.01). That is consistent with a previous analysis of women participating in the Nurses' Health Study, which showed that each serving increase was associated with a 15% greater risk. Hu and colleagues also examined the relationship between consuming sugary drinks and various biomarkers, finding an association between greater consumption and adverse effects on triglycerides, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factors 1 and 2, HDL cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), and leptin (P≤0.02 for all). Referring to the inflammatory markers, they noted that "inflammation is a key factor in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and cardiometabolic disease, and could represent an additional pathway by which sugar-sweetened beverages influence risk." The study, according to the authors, was limited by some error in measuring dietary intakes, the uncertain generalizability of the findings beyond the study population, the possibility of unmeasured and residual confounding, and the large number of comparisons that were made. The study was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study is supported by four grants from the National Institutes of Health. The authors reported that they had no conflicts of interest. From the American Heart Association:

Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health
Primary source: Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association
Source reference:
De Koning L, et al “Sweetened beverage consumption, incident coronary heart disease, and biomarkers of risk in men” Circulation 2012; DOI: 10.1161/​CIRCULATIONAHA.111.067017.



“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Hélène Campbell has false alarm for double-lung transplant

A post on Hélène Campbell's site March 11 notes that Hélène got the call from the transplant team to go to the hospital, but the transplant was cancelled because the donor lungs were not a perfect match. As most of us know by now, Hélène reached out to Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres about her need for donor lungs and her story went viral on the internet. Click on her site above for more on Hélène's inspiring story.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Friday, March 09, 2012

First "combined" transplant of a liver, kidney and pancreas performed in Florida

Besides being the first ever done, it was the first performed on a child, said Dr. Andreas Tzakis of the Miller School

By Sharon Lawson nbcMiami.com

A 6-year-old Jacksonville girl’s life was saved by Miami doctors who performed a “combined” transplant of a liver, kidney and pancreas – the first such operation ever done.

Angela Bushi was born healthy, but when she was just 1 she developed insulin diabetes, which progressed to a very rare and deadly disease called Wolcott-Rallison syndrome. It causes problems that include diabetes, liver and or kidney failure, growth problems, or death.

"Most children actually died during liver failure or complications due to liver failure,” said Dr. Olaf Bodamer of the University of Miami Health System.

There are only 82 published cases of WRS in the world, and in her life Angela has struggled to survive. But today she is a walking and talking medical miracle after she was given a second chance at life by a team of surgeons who defied the odds.

Doctors at Holtz Children's Hospital and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine were able to do the combined transplant. Besides being the first ever done, it was the first performed on a child, said Dr. Andreas Tzakis of the Miller School.

"This is a miracle what they did to her,” said Valbona Bushi, Angela’s mother, who said she is very grateful because her other daughter died from the same disease.

She feared Angela would suffer the same fate.

"I was really scared because she was sick … but thank God everything looks good,” she said.

The road to recovery was a long one for the bright-eyed precious young girl – but doctors now say they are confident Angela will have a healthy future. Thanks to the combined transplant, she no longer requires insulin treatment.

"Many of us are extremely happily surprised that we could get her to this point,” said Dr. Michael Nares of the UM Health System. “But that's what happens when you put a great team together."

Doctors are hoping to perform combined transplants on other children suffering from the same syndrome.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

New technique repairs damaged donor kidneys for transplantation

A breakthrough in kidney transplantation could cut the donor waiting list by 10 per cent, as it revives lower quality kidneys which would not normally be considered for transplant.

ActiveQuote.com
In a world first, British researchers have developed and clinically tested a new procedure that reverses some of the damage done by keeping the kidney ice-cold before transplantation, meaning it is less likely to be rejected.

The new technique, called normothermic perfusion, flushes the organ with oxygenated blood and anti-rejection drugs before it is implanted. This reverses the damage done by cold storage and allows it to begin working in the recipient’s body earlier.

Most kidneys come from live donors. Doctors are increasingly attempting to use organs from damaged kidneys from "marginal donors", such as the elderly or people with high blood pressure and diabetes.

Normothermic perfusion revives kidneys which are lower quality and would not normally be considered for transplant.

So far, 17 operations have been conducted with this new technique at a unit in Leicester General Hospital. The operations all involved organs from marginal donors, and were carried out from between November 2010 and November 2011.

The results and procedure have been announced today by the charity Kidney Research UK to coincide with World Kidney Day.

Chronic renal failure is a long-term irreversible decrease in kidney function. Chronic renal failure is not reversible, and dialysis or kidney transplants may be necessary in the latter stages of the disease. There are currently around 7,000 people waiting for a donor kidney, and 3,000 operations are carried out in the UK each year.

Professor Mike Nicholson, lead researcher for Kidney Research UK and based at Leicester University, said: “Normothermic perfusion allows us to gradually reintroduce blood flow to donor kidneys outside of the body and in a controlled way.

“This reverses much of the damage caused by cold storage, while offering us a unique opportunity to treat the organs with anti-inflammatory agents and other drugs before going on to complete the transplant procedure.

“In short, we’re able repair and revive damaged kidneys in a way that would otherwise be impossible.”


“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Heart Transplant Recipient Promotes Organ Donation at Farmer's Market

Yvette d'Entremont HalifaxNewsNet

'Scribbles for Sale campaign' encourages people to register as organ, tissue donors

Halifax, Nova Scotia - When Julie Lyons first decided to set up a table at the Seaport Farmers Market, the idea was to put her pen to paper for others.

"I wanted to do something meaningful for people, I love writing, and am always writing letters. I knew there were people who don't write letters anymore like I do," Lyons explained.

"A friend who was in Africa said there was always a scribe in the market..I decided I'd offer to write custom letters of any kind and to negotiate on price."

But ‘Scribbles for Sale' quickly morphed into a campaign to encourage others to put their pens to paper and register as organ and tissue donors.

The Halifax resident is the grateful recipient of a heart that has given her a new lease on life.

Her journey was a long one and began with an adult diagnosis of a congenital heart disease. A cardiologist told her she was born with a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. At the time, it didn't intrude in her life in any tangible way.

Lyons continued her physically demanding job as a flight attendant until 2004 when she couldn't shake a persistent flu. She took time off and a chest ray eventually showed a pulmonary embolism. Doctors told her it was time to call it quits.

Despite leaving the career she enjoyed, Lyons was fine for the next three or four years.

"Things started going downhill slowly. I did volunteer work and ballroom dancing for seven or eight years," she recalled. "I had to stop. I thought, oh well, that's the way it is, I have heart disease."

After a particularly bad winter in 2010, Lyons was very weak and tired. Medication wasn't working to clear the fluid building up inside of her and she was experiencing congestive heart failure.

"They did tests and told me the results are that there's nothing more we can do for you, you have to talk to a cardiologist," she recalled. "I was told we had to talk about other forms of treatment, we had to talk about a heart transplant."

Within four days Lyons couldn't even make it upstairs. In hospital, doctors said because medication wasn't working, her only other immediate option was an operation to fit an L-VAD (left ventricle assist device).

"They put the pump inside your heart chamber and it has to run all the time and weighs about 10 pounds," she said. "You have to regularly change the batteries and bring lots of extra batteries wherever you go."

In February of 2011, her heart's irregular rhythm caused her to black out.

Then in early April, she was chilled and felt very sick. Within days it became obvious she had a bad infection at the site of the L-VAD tube.

"I thought they'd say you need a new pump, but they said no, we can't because the whole area is infected. You need a new heart," she said.
She shot up to the number one spot on the waiting list in Canada, and on April 16 she underwent
a heart transplant.

"It went really well. As soon as I came through I felt so good, I felt it in my body and it was onwards and upwards," Lyons said. "By April 29 I was dressed and watching the Royal Wedding in the lounge."

Despite a few complications, by November she had her strength back. Lyons is now passionate about encouraging others to sign their organ and tissue donation cards.

She has donor cards ready and waiting at her table and also sells greeting cards featuring the work of local artists. All profits go to the Legacy of Life Foundation.

The reactions from people who stop at her Seaport Farmers Market table on Sundays range from silence to those who burst into tears and ask to hug her.

"It's important to fill my life with things that are meaningful to me. I've been given this life and it's important to do something with it," she said.

"My mother can call and ask what I'm doing and I'll say ‘Running upstairs.' She'll ask why, and I'll say ‘Because I can.'"

Lyons still hopes to pen a few letters as a market scribe, but is enjoying the opportunity to showcase the results of organ donation.

She's at the Seaport Farmer's Market on Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"My problem now is slowing down. I want to take every minute and squeeze the life out of it," she said.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register
Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves
Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.