Fundraiser for Oregon man needing kidney/pancreas transplant

‘A longer, healthier life’ 

By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald, Oregon

Fundraiser to help man with diabetes who is seeking kidney-pancreas transplant

LEBANON — Micah Evans was 6 years old when he got a flu that wouldn’t go away.

His illness progressed to the point where he had to be hospitalized. It took two months to fully recover, and by then, his pancreas was so damaged it could no longer produce insulin.

That led to Type I diabetes, which Evans has battled for 31 years. He went into full renal failure two years ago and is now seeking a kidney and pancreas transplant through Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

The Lebanon man has insurance to cover the costs of the actual transplant. But he said he’ll need roughly $15,000 for the three-month post-operation stay in Portland, some of the post-operation medications he’ll need, and help for he and his wife to care for their three young sons while he recovers.

Family members and friends have organized a multifamily yard sale this weekend in Millersburg to help out. They’ve also set up an account at US Bank, a Facebook page and a fundraiser May 24-26 at Panda Express. More efforts are in the works.

The yard sale will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 2257 Alexander Lane. That’s the home of Dion and Stephanie Evans, Evans’ brother and sister-in-law.

Evans grew up in Lacomb, where his parents still live. He graduated in 1994 from Lebanon High School and said he’s been very grateful for all the assistance from his family and the community thus far.

Diabetes caused Evans two retinal detachments, compromising his vision and leading to the loss of his job at Rent A Center in 2009. It also causes extreme fatigue.

“It’s hard to get around just because of that fatigue, you know?” Evans said. “You’re able to do stuff, but you take a lot of breaks.”

A musician, Evans has uploaded a few songs about his situation on YouTube. They can be found under the title “Micah Evans Music.”

Currently, he spends four hours, three times a week, on dialysis, but the machine isn’t a substitute for a working kidney.

“There’s things it misses when it does its cleaning job,” he said. “The doctors at OHSU thought I would be a good candidate for a double transplant (kidney and pancreas), because it’ll give the kidney a better lifespan, they believe.”

Evans and his wife of 16 years, Miranda, have three boys: Brayden, 10, Silas, 7, and Cohen, 4. Miranda recently lost her job as a certified nursing assistant.

“The dream of having a life-saving double transplant means everything to me. It means a longer, healthier life with my family,” Evans wrote on the website established to raise money for his transplant costs. “This necessary procedure will not only transform my life, but also the life of my family.”

More information about Evans, his condition and various fundraisers is available on his website,www.metfd.org, and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/MicahEvansTransplantFund.

TRANSPLANT CANDIDACY

An organ transplant candidate’s ability to live in Portland for three months following the procedure is just one of numerous factors affecting candidacy.

The location question is important because numerous medical followups are needed in the weeks following surgery to make sure the recipient isn’t rejecting the new organ, said Mike Seely, executive director of transplant services at Oregon Health & Science University.

However, Seely said, potential organ recipients also are assessed in many other ways to ensure “proper stewardship” of the gift. Doctors ask, for instance, if the patient will take the proper medication and refrain from activities that could compromise the transplant.

Donated organs, he said, are “a precious resource, which we don’t have enough of.”

That said, waiting times for transplants in the Pacific Northwest generally are pretty good, compared with the rest of the nation, Seely said. Residents of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana are more likely than folks in the rest of the country to agree to be donors.

Seely did not immediately have average wait times for a kidney-pancreas transplant, such as Lebanon resident Micah Evans needs. Blood types and the health factors of both the donor and the recipient all affect the process.

The hospital performed eight such transplants in 2011, with a survival rate of 100 percent.

“It’s so important to get the message out: There are not enough donors. Eighteen people die in the United States every day waiting for some type of organ transplant,” Seely said. “The graciousness of someone else is the key to this person’s health.”

Read More: http://democratherald.com/news/local/a-longer-healthier-life/article_83bfd984-bdda-11e2-9dcf-001a4bcf887a.html

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Immune Modulating Treatments for Type 1 Diabetes

By Linda Fugate EmpowHER

If you need an organ transplant and you have an identical twin willing to donate, you have an excellent chance for success in most cases. Unfortunately, there are exceptions. Patients with type 1 diabetes are unable to produce insulin because of autoimmune damage to the pancreas. The medical literature reports that partial pancreas transplants have been performed between identical twins, with healthy donor and diabetic recipient. This should have cured the diabetes. But it did not cure the autoimmune process that destroyed the recipient twin's original pancreas. The transplanted partial pancreas was also destroyed in a short time.

Type 1 diabetes patients are at risk of damage to many organs and tissues from blood sugar levels outside the normal range. When kidney failure occurs, a treatment option is a combined kidney/pancreas transplantation. Immunosuppressive drugs are necessary for the kidney transplant in almost all cases (since most people don't have identical twins). When the donor kidney comes from a cadaver, it seems reasonable to give the recipient a new pancreas as well. A recent article in the Diabetes medical journal reports on three such patients. All received thymoglobulin and daclizumab as immunosuppressive drugs. Two also received rituximab. These drugs were sufficient to save the new kidneys from immune attack, but the new pancreases were also damaged, and type 1 diabetes returned.

Mycophenolate mofetil has been tried on patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in another attempt to stop the autoimmune process. Unfortunately, it was not effective, either alone or in combination with daclizumab.

These failed attempts to stop disease progression with standard immunosuppressive drugs are undoubtedly frustrating to researchers and patients alike. However, they do provide important data. The immune system is perhaps the most complicated system in our bodies, and knowing what does not work gives us clues about where to look next.

Research approaches using blood-derived stem cells have demonstrated promising results in animal models. Check with your doctor to see what the latest results mean to you.

See article for references

Linda Fugate is a scientist and writer in Austin, Texas. She has a Ph.D. in Physics and an M.S. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering. Her background includes academic and industrial research in materials science. She currently writes song lyrics and health articles.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

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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

Kidney-Pancreas recipient says 'save a life - carry a donor card'

Geraldine Grant's life was transformed by a kidney-pancreas transplant

Have an opinion on this article? Click on comments at the end of this post.

By Debbie Waite Oxford Mail

Geraldine Grant is one of only a handful of diabetes patients of her type in the world to undergo a kidney and pancreas transplant.

Now she wants Oxford Mail readers to do something world-changing too, by becoming organ donors.

Fifty-one-year-old divorcee Mrs Grant, from Kennington, was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 24 — and for more than 20 years was treated with insulin as a Type 1 diabetic.

In 2002, as is common with many diabetics, her kidneys started to fail.

Two years later, she was forced to have a kidney removed.

And it was then that she made a startling discovery.

She said: "After they removed one of my kidneys I found my blood sugar levels stayed okay and I didn't actually seem to need my insulin injections. I was very puzzled.

"I stopped taking the injections and went back to the Churchill Hospital for tests and they found I wasn't a Type 1 diabetic after all, I actually had Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (Mody).

"This is more difficult to diagnose than other forms of diabetes and basically meant I had inherited diabetes, I hadn't developed it, and my body had actually been producing insulin all along. “Despite having taken insulin for more than 20 years, I may not have needed it at all."

Mrs Grant spent the next two years controlling her diabetes with a strict diet and daily blood monitoring, but doctors told her she would one day need a transplant.

She said: "In 2006, the Churchill's transplant centre put me on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, but my doctor put the case that I needed a new pancreas too.

"This was very unusual as only Type 1 diabetics — whose bodies cannot produce insulin — usually qualify for a new pancreas. But it went for a review and I was put forward for the double transplant."

In 2007, suffering a lot of pain, anaemia and with soaring blood pressure, Mrs Grant was forced to go on dialysis for 18 months until a donor could be found.

She said: "When the transplant call eventually came it was a case of 14th time lucky.

"After the operation my doctor came to see me and told me just how unusual it was for a Mody patient like me to have a pancreas transplant. I have been so lucky."

But Mrs Grant's joy has also been tinged with concern for her four children.

She said: "When they discovered I had inherited diabetes, my four sons were tested straight away and two, the eldest and the youngest were both found to have the Mody gene. I was very upset.

"The oldest, Alex, 27, is now taking tablets for the condition, Fraser, 19, the youngest hasn't shown any signs of the disease, but it has made me worry a lot about what will happen to their health in the future.

"My new kidney has taken wonderfully and although I've had some little problems with my pancreas, I do feel a lot better in myself.

"All my sons are now organ donors and I'm very proud of them for that.

"But I would like to see everyone become a donor who can — you don't need those organs after you have gone and they can help so many other people..”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves