Human transplants from pigs

There's been some exciting transplant research emerging that is sure to have an impact on increasing the donor pool and getting more patients off waiting lists. Xenotransplantation could save thousands of patients waiting for donated organs. The animal organ, probably from a pig or baboon could be genetically altered with human genes to trick a patient’s immune system into accepting it as a part of its own body. They have re-emerged because of the lack of organs available and the constant battle to keep immune systems from rejecting allotransplants. Xenotransplants are thus potentially a more effective alternative. This article describes the success achieved with transplanting pig tissue.

HealthFirst - ABC.com

Pigs make some of the best donors for human transplants.

HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo tells us why humans seem to thrive with at least one type of transplant from pigs.

We are talking about tissue transplants, and from hernias to plastic surgery, pigs are helping a lot of humans out.

A few years ago, moves like these didn't come easily for Chris Nelson. "I was having pain even standing for an extended period of time."

Nelson had a hernia in his groin. The muscle had torn. Instead of using donor tissue, doctors repaired it with material made from the small intestines of pigs.

"It did seem almost weird science or something like that," Nelson admitted.

"Pigs have been a very popular or common animal to use. Believe it or not, their genetic makeup is pretty close to humans," said bariatric surgeon Dr. Samer Mattar.

When placed on the torn tissue, the body uses the pig part as a scaffold or guide to remodel and repair itself. Over time, the pig's tissue is replaced by human tissue, providing a permanent repair.

"Over time, it's very hard to distinguish where the graft or the pig's tissues are versus the patient's," Mattar said.

Besides hernias, the pig tissue can be used in ulcer repair, wound care, plastic surgery and weight loss surgery. Doctors say, compared to a human donor, the pig tissue has less risk of causing an allergic reaction.

"No pain whatsoever. It's great," Nelson said.

"I would say my game's getting better, but I probably wouldn't be honest at that point."

But he's satisfied with simply feeling better.

There is a chance the body will see the animal based tissue as a foreign and reject it.

BACKGROUND: Human cells or tissue can be used for implantation, transplantation or infusion into a human recipient. A transplant occurs when a recipient's damaged or failing organ or tissue is replaced with a functioning one from a donor. Donors can be living or deceased. Organs that can be transplanted include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and intestine. Bones, tendons, cornea, heart valves, veins and skin are types of tissues than can be transplanted.

RISKS: Rejection is a major concern with transplants. This happens when the body does not accept the transplanted organ or tissue. During rejection, the body's immune system attacks the transplanted organ or tissue, which causes failure of the transplant. The rejected organ or tissue must then be removed and the patient must wait for a different one. However, tissue transplants have a lower rejection rate than organ transplants.

According to the American Association of Tissue Banks, over the past 20 years, there have been more than 10 million tissue transplants. However, like many other medical procedures, tissue transplants carry their own risks. To lower these risks, tissue donors are screened and tested for a wide range of diseases. In addition, the tissue is thoroughly processed in systems that can destroy or inactivate any bacteria or viruses.

PIGS AS DONORS: Transplantations between two different species, such as pigs and humans, is known as xenotransplantation. Pig skin and pig valves have been used in human transplants, but not entire organs. Research shows when a tissue is torn in a human, the body can use tissue from a pig's small intestine as a guide to repair itself. Over a period of time, the pig tissue assists in regenerating the human tissue, forming a permanent repair. According to research found in the journal Transplantation, transplants from pigs might actually be safer than transplants from humans in the long run. Jeffrey Platt, M.D., head of the Transplantation Biology Program at the Mayo Clinic, says advanced organ screening for infections and other problems and the freedom to schedule surgery in advance may better prepare the patient's immune system for the foreign tissue.

One major concern with species-to-species transplants is transmission of animal disease to humans. However, studies have shown that pigs are healthier and carry fewer diseases than other animals. In addition, compared to other animals, their anatomies are more similar to humans.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Organ preservation device expected to save lives

This could be a significant breakthrough in organ transplantation. By preserving the integrity of the donor organ while it is being transported there is less likelihood of the organ not being viable for transplant, thus increasing the donor pool. Also, by increasing the freshness of the organ from a few hours up to a day will allow for the transport of organs from greater distances and give patients more time to get to the transplant center. Let's hope this exciting research will become a reality.

San Antonio-based medical innovations company
licenses technology developed at UT Health Science Center

SAN ANTONIO — The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio announced a license agreement with MCD Life Sciences LLC to commercialize a novel organ preservation technology. The technology, developed through more than a decade of scientific investigations in the School of Medicine, is expected to significantly increase the time that can elapse between removal of donor organs and their transplant into waiting recipients. The current four- to six-hour window could be expanded to as long as a day, the inventors said.

The technology — a portable, sealed canister that uses a rich medium and small amounts of compressed oxygen to keep hearts, kidneys and livers oxygenated and fed with nutrients — could replace the traditional method of putting organs in cold medical solution, then on ice for transport. The worldwide market based on current transplant surgeries is projected to be approximately $400 million, with two-thirds of that estimated to be from kidney transplants.

“The device allows 24 hours of preservation, is compact and light, and uses only small amounts of oxygen,” said co-inventor Leon Bunegin, associate professor of anesthesiology in the School of Medicine. “From the moment an organ is preserved it does not deteriorate in this system, such that the organ after transplant will function as well as it did before it was harvested.”

The canister does not rely on electricity and requires a small bottle of compressed oxygen. Because of this, the entire system weighs less than 15 pounds and is small enough to stow in an in-flight overhead compartment, said Edward (Jerry) Gelineau, co-inventor and research scientist in the School of Medicine.

Lisa Maier, Ph.D., president of MCD Life Sciences, said the device will allow flexibility for enhanced organ matching to donors, resulting in improved survival and lower rejection rates. It will also reduce the number of discarded organs. “Medical personnel will be able to transport an organ from any donor to any recipient around the globe,” Dr. Maier said. “This is going to increase the donor pool substantially.”

Bunegin pointed out that many transplants — currently performed as emergencies — could be scheduled, giving comfort to patients, families and operating teams.

The device is designed for the heart and kidney, and with adaptations will support the liver and lungs. (Those organs require a larger canister.) The Health Science Center has three U.S. patents on the original version invented by Bunegin and the now-retired Bobby O’Dell, plus a U.S. patent pending on the newest version of the device, and soon will file a patent on new designs.

South Texas Technology Management, a regional technology transfer office that serves four University of Texas institutions — the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, UT San Antonio, UT Brownsville and UT Pan American — negotiated the licensing agreement with MCD Life Sciences. MCD Life Sciences, a medical innovations company based in San Antonio and focused on commercializing breakthrough technologies from universities, was founded in May 2009 by Dr. Maier.

Grants from South Texas Technology Management and The University of Texas System's Texas Ignition Fund led to device development, and are supporting the testing required for U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval.

Facts - organ transplantation and preservation

• 27,963 organs were transplanted in the U.S. in 2008.


• Of those, 21,746 were recovered from deceased donors and required some level of preservation prior to transplantation.


• More than 103,600 Americans are on transplant waiting lists as of today (Sept. 17)


• From January to June 2009, 14,191 transplants were performed in the U.S.


• Over the same period, there were 7,250 donors nationwide.

(Source: United Network for Organ Sharing)

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Uninsured father needs lung transplant - family faces financial crisis & seeks help

I receive many requests from the U.S. looking for advice and help with the financial burdens associated with a family member's organ transplant, without which they will die. Betty Phillips' story especially touched me and she has given me permission to post it here. Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated by the Phillips family.

Dear Mr. Sheppard,

My husband, Lance, fifty-four years old, was diagnosed in Nov.' 08 with pulmonary fibrosis. For thirty-three years of our marriage he had worked two jobs in order to provide extras for his three children. He worked at a local furniture factory for thirty-three years, and while there, had health insurance with a group plan. He also owned and operated a small fiberglass insulation business since 1978.

Three years ago he quit his factory job in order to go into his business full-time. Not many months after, he began experiencing breathing problems. He kept it from us until his breathing became so labored, he could no longer hide it. He is on oxygen full-time, and unable to do the most simple task.

We currently see a group of lung specialists from Memphis, TN., and their treatment has consisted of prescribing prednisone, along with 24 hr. oxygen.

My husband had self-employment insurance, which we dropped because his inability to work prevented us from being able to afford the $400.00 monthly premiums. In addition, we found out that the medical payments the company would approve were minimal.

Based on our income, my husband was approved for charity assistance at the Baptist Hospital in Desoto County, MS, which has to be renewed every three months. Lance has not been able to work at all since November, and just started getting S.S. disability payments in May. Still, he will not be eligible for Medicare for two years. Mr.

Sheppard, my husband has worked very hard all of his life to provide for his family. This has been no easy task for a person living in the poorest state of the nation, Mississippi. We feel so helpless in this situation, and having the catastrophic illness he has, with no insurance, adds to that helplessness.

Do you know of any organization, Sir, that would be able to help us finanacially with the double lung transplant that we have been told he will have to have eventually?

I would appreciate any information you might be able to give...

Sincerely,

Betty Phillips
New Albany, MS
email: Ladyhops@wmconnect.com

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

New schedule for organ transplant TV series "Three Rivers"

CBS BUMPS NEW "THREE RIVERS" PILOT, SECOND EPISODE TO AIR FIRST Oct 4th at 9pm ET

the FUTON CRITIC

LOS ANGELES -- CBS is giving "Three Rivers" a new pilot - again.

Scheduling updates released by the network this morning indicate the show's second episode ("Place of Life") will now serve as its premiere on Sunday, October 4 at 9:00/8:00c. "Tick-Tock," originally set for October 4, will instead air the following week.

Here's how the Eye details the respective installments:

"Place of Life": After suffering a heart-attack, Dr. Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin) tells a young pregnant woman that in order to save her and her unborn child she must get a heart transplant. However, unexpected complications with the donor's family place the operation in jeopardy, on THREE RIVERS, premiering Sunday, Oct. 4 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"Tick-Tock": Andy and the team try to save an 18-year-old college student in need of a double lung transplant but run into a road block that might not allow her to be eligible for a new set of lungs, on THREE RIVERS, Sunday, Oct. 11 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Both episodes were filmed after the original pilot was scrapped to accommodate the addition of Alfre Woodard (replacing the Julia Ormond and Joaquim de Almeida characters) as well as relocating production to Los Angeles.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Pennsylvania hospital reports first-ever double transplant

I think this is the first heart-kidney transplant I've heard about. Traditionally, significant kidney disease has been a contraindication for heart transplantation. I read about transplant cardiologists and surgeons at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who are aggressively taking an alternative approach by performing simultaneous heart and kidney transplantation. In the process, they are helping those who did not seem to have much hope of ever getting a new heart. There have been many kidney/pancreas and heart/lung transplants but heart/kidney transplants are rare indeed.

Lebanon Daily News
The Associated Press
Updated: 09/23/2009 07:53:15 AM EDT

PITTSBURGH—Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh is reporting its first-ever dual organ transplant since the facility started transplanting organs in 1987.

The hospital says a 63-year-old man continues to recover after receiving a transplanted heart and kidney on Aug. 30. The surgery took 10 hours.

The man was suffering from cardiomyopathy (car-dee-OH-my-AW'-path-ee) or a weak heart. His poor circulation, in turn, damaged his kidneys.

Doctors say one advantage to the double-organ transplant is that patients are less likely to reject a transplanted heart if they also receive a kidney at the same time. Researchers aren't sure why that is, but say it may be because the kidneys store immune system cells that would cause a new organ to be rejected.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Nearly 8,000 NYC children enjoyed summer in the country

Click image to Donate to The Fresh Air Fund and change a child's life forever

All year long I've been promoting the Fresh Air Fund to help boys and girls, six to 12 years old, who reside in low-income communities in New York City, to enjoy the experience of spending two weeks of life outside the city this summer. This year's campaign has been a huge success according to the following I just received from Sara Wilson, Outreach Coordinator for the Fresh Air Fund and it warms my heart to see that so many children were able to get away from their tough neighborhoods to enjoy the pleasures of the country.

Hi Merv

I wanted to thank you for all of your help this past year spreading the word about The Fresh Air Fund. We had nearly 8,000 children enjoying their best summers yet. All of the wonderful folks who blogged, posted banners, tweeted, and joined our Facebook Page and Cause have just been amazing. We put together a video montage of images from the summer and some other fun stuff here to thank you:

http://freshairfund-news.com

If you'd like to share this wonderful news with your readers or followers that would be fantastic. If you haven't become a fan or our Facebook Page, please do - http://facebook.com/freshairfund and our twitter handle is @freshairfund.

Again, thank you so very much

Sara

Visit the Fresh Air Fund home for information on making a donation, becoming a guest host or volunteer and participating in the 2010 NYC half-marathon which raised $80,000 for the children in the 2009 event.

***********

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Flu Vaccine Advised for Transplant Patients

Lung transplant recipients particularly at risk

Renal & Urology News

Patients who receive solid organ transplants (SOT) generally have higher influenza infection rates because of the immunosuppressant drugs they take to prevent organ rejection, Dr. De Serres noted. Lung transplant recipients seem particularly at risk as the lungs are the primary site of flu infection.

SAN FRANCISCO—As the nation prepares for influenza season, the susceptibility of immunosuppressed individuals, including transplant recipients, to the new H1N1 influenza strain (“swine flu”) and efficacy of the new H1N1 vaccines in these populations remain unclear. Nevertheless, a medical epidemiologist believes transplant recipients and other immunosuppressed individuals receive the new vaccines.

“I think if I were a renal transplant patient, I would get vaccinated before influenza strikes in my community,” said Gaston De Serres, MD, PhD, of Laval University in Quebec, Canada. “If I have flu-like symptoms during the time influenza is circulating in my community, I should go and consult early [with my physician], not late.”

At the 49th annual meeting here of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Dr. De Serres spoke about the H1N1 vaccines approved by the FDA on September 15.

Over the next six months, more will be known about how safe and effective the H1N1 vaccines are in immunocompromised patients, he said. Based on preliminary data from adults participating in multiple clinical studies, the H1N1 vaccines induce a robust immune response in most healthy adults eight to 10 days after a single dose, as occurs with the seasonal influenza vaccine.

Ongoing clinical studies will provide additional information about the optimal dose in children. The recommendations for dosing will be updated if indicated by findings from those studies. As with the seasonal influenza vaccines, the 2009 H1N1 vaccines are being produced in formulations that contain thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, and in non-thimerosal formulations. Patients with severe or life-threatening allergies to chicken eggs, or to any other substance in the vaccine, should not be vaccinated.

Patients who receive solid organ transplants (SOT) generally have higher influenza infection rates because of the immunosuppressant drugs they take to prevent organ rejection, Dr. De Serres noted. Lung transplant recipients seem particularly at risk as the lungs are the primary site of flu infection. Kidney transplant recipients can suffer organ rejection if they contract influenza. In theory, vaccination in these populations could also stimulate a T-cell response, leading to rejection. However, most studies suggest this does not occur.

Flu can cause organ rejection

“Seasonal influenza has been reported to cause rejection of the transplanted kidney, so preventing influenza in kidney transplant recipients is important,” said Ken Kunisaki, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “While kidney transplant recipients may not have as good antibody responses to influenza vaccine as people without transplants, a substantial proportion still responds. Therefore, kidney transplant recipients should receive influenza vaccination, in accordance with guidelines from the American Society of Transplantation. Unfortunately, there are not enough data about swine flu in transplant recipients and its vaccine to make firm conclusions and recommendations at this time.”

With seasonal influenza, a key issue appears to be timing. The American Society of Transplantation recommends flu vaccination every year for all recipients of SOTs, beginning six months after transplantation. U.S. guidelines recommend lifelong annual vaccinations; European guidelines recommend individual patient assessment.

Estimates show that more than 327,000 people were receiving hemodialysis treatment in the United States at the end of 2006. Infections are the second leading cause of death in these patients, and lung infections such as influenza claim a higher proportion of lives among dialysis patients than the general population. An analysis of Medicare claims data showed that flu-vaccinated patients on dialysis had a substantially lower chance of hospitalization or death from any cause than unvaccinated patients.

Chemotherapy can produce acute and profound immunosuppression in cancer patients and studies suggest that 21%-33% of cancer patients may be infected with influenza when admitted to a hospital with respiratory symptoms during a flu epidemic. Again, timing of flu vaccination may be crucial in cancer patients. The response to flu vaccination might be best between chemotherapy cycles or more than 7 days before chemotherapy starts.

“Patients receiving chemotherapy for cancer appear to be at heightened risk for influenza-related complications,” Dr. Kunisaki said. “They also appear less likely to respond to influenza vaccine, but nevertheless, a fair proportion still responds. No formal guidelines exist for influenza vaccination of patients receiving chemotherapy, but the data suggest timing vaccination to either more than two weeks before receiving chemotherapy or between chemotherapy cycles.”

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Boost for transplants as donors hit wall

PSnews - Australia

A wall of support has been erected by the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplant Authority as a way of promoting awareness and increasing public confidence in organ and tissue donation.

The National Communications Charter Signatories Wall has attracted 47 signatories, including the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments as well as agencies and community organisations and was unveiled by the Authority at its offices in Canberra.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Mark Butler said although Australia was a world leader in transplantation outcomes, organ and tissue donations were low by global standards.

There are around 1800 Australians on the official waiting list at any one time, with on average 200 organ donors each year.

“Every donation is important,” Mr Butler said.

“This sector has over 70 stakeholders and we cannot afford to lose potential donations through public confusion arising from a fragmented approach.

“We know that while the majority of Australians support organ and tissue donation, many families do not discuss this in any depth.

“Yet we also know that when people face the decision about donating a family member's organs they want to be sure of that person's wishes.”|

Mr Butler said Charter signatories were working to increase family consent and organ donation rates for transplantation by promoting nationally consistent, evidence-based messages.

Chief Executive of the Authority, Karen Murphy said the key messages were ‘discover, decide and discuss’.

“Our shared goal is to enable Australians to discover the facts on organ and tissue donation, to make informed choices to decide to become donors and to discuss as a family to confidently know each other's wishes in relation to organ and tissue donation," Ms Murphy said.

She said more information was available at http://www.donatelife.gov.au.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Cutting Salt Intake in US Could Save $50 Billion a Year

As organ transplant recipients we must be vigilant about our salt intake to keep our blood pressure in check and to prevent renal (kidney) damage. The recommended highest daily allowance for everyone is 2300 mg/day and the 1,500 milligram level can lower blood pressure further and more recently is the amount recommended by the Institute of Medicine as an adequate intake level and one that most people should try to achieve.

Shopping for low-sodium food can be a frustrating experience these days. I always check for sodium content and it's alarming to find so many foods with high salt content. I check everything before I buy it, especially canned soups, packaged and prepared meals, processed foods, luncheon and deli meats. You will find them loaded with salt. I recently read the sodium content in a can of chili and was frightened to see over 1,000 mg in a half-can serving. I put it back on the shelf immediately. Also, check for the serving size listed for the sodium content. Many producers show a very small serving size so as to make the salt content appear to be reasonable. For sodium content of fast food in restaurants such as McDonald's go to this link: food-facts.suite101.com.

By Lisa Nainggolan
Medscape Pulmonary Medicine

September 17, 2009 (Santa Monica, California) — One of the first studies to estimate the economic benefits of lowering sodium consumption among the US public has found that $18 billion in healthcare costs for hypertension could be saved every year if salt intake were reduced to the amount recommended by health officials.

n addition, quality of life would be improved for millions of people, with a further potential saving of $32 billion annually, say Kartika Palar (RAND Pardee Graduate School , Santa Monica, CA) and Dr Roland Sturm (RAND, Santa Monica, CA) in their paper in the September/October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

"This study provides an important first step toward quantifying the benefits of reducing the intake of sodium by the American public," says Palar in a statement [2]. "These findings make a strong case that there's value in pursuing a population-based approach to reducing sodium intake among Americans."

30% of US Have Hypertension, Much Due to Excessive Sodium Intake

Excessive consumption of salt is a persistent health problem in many parts of the world, and the US is no exception, say Palar and Sturm. Using population-level data on blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, and sodium intake from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999–2004), they estimated that American adults consume around 3400 mg of sodium a day, when the recommended amount is 2300 mg/day. Only about 30% of the population eats less than 2300 mg/day, they say.

Their objective was to quantify the potential benefits of reducing salt consumption at the population level by considering both savings in healthcare costs and increases in quality of life. They modeled sodium-reduction scenarios by using a cross-sectional simulation approach and calculated the following outcome measures: hypertension prevalence, direct healthcare costs, and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs).

Reducing average population sodium intake to the amount recommended (2300 mg/day) could reduce cases of hypertension by 11 million, saving $18 billion in direct healthcare dollars and gaining 312 000 QALYs that are worth $32 billion annually, say Palar and Sturm.

"Our results are driven by the fact that nearly 30% of the nation's population has hypertension," says Palar, adding that one of the reasons that high blood pressure is so pervasive is that sodium consumption is so excessive.

And although she and Sturm note a number of limitations to their study, they say their estimates are likely conservative, because they were unable to calculate the savings for illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases, where sodium consumption plays a less well-defined role.

Strategies Desperately Needed to Lower Sodium Intake in US

They stress that much better strategies for lowering sodium intake need to be developed in the US and that the main drivers must be changes to government regulations and/or voluntary actions by companies.

"Although clinicians can educate their patients about sodium intake, it is very difficult for individuals to reduce sodium intake. Studies estimate that 75% of dietary salt intake in the US population comes from processed foods rather than sources added during cooking or at the table," they explain.

"Without more accessible information, voluntary actions by companies, or government regulation, consumers may have difficulty reducing sodium consumption on their own."

They discuss strategies that have been successfully adopted elsewhere in the world, such as in the UK, where the Food Standards Agency has encouraged companies to use a traffic-light, front-of-package labeling system that identifies food products as low (ie, green), medium (yellow), or high (red) in sodium. This agency has also run an aggressive advertising campaign to lower salt consumption, they note.

In the US, although the FDA has recently opened proceedings to evaluate the regulatory status of salt and sodium, this has remained "unchanged for more than 40 years," they point out.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

'Frustrating' waiting for transplant

British Columbia father of two-year-old needs new heart to play with his little girl

By John Colebourn The Province

Chris Kirby has big plans for his little girl when he gets a new heart.

Like any young dad, Kirby, 34, wants to one day play in the park with his two-year-old daughter Morgan. He would also like to go jogging with his wife, Tanya, the way they did just a few years ago. But first he has to wait. And he has no idea how long it will take to get his life-saving heart transplant.

"It is very frustrating," Kirby said Wednesday from the Port Moody home he is confined to while his wife goes to work and his daughter to a babysitter because he is too ill to care for her.

"I'm not one to sit back and watch things," said Kirby, who was healthy enough to run a half-marathon just two years ago.

"It's all very restricting," he explained of the sedentary lifestyle he now leads with a heart that works at about 20-per-cent capacity.

"I can't lift my daughter up and I can't run after her. I don't have the energy to look after her. She's fast," he said of life with Morgan while waiting for a heart donor.

"It's a matter of life and death for me waiting like this," said Kirby who can't walk more than a block without getting light-headed.

"Heart disease can happen to anyone," he added. "Please, we just need more people out there to be donors. It could be your daughter or son or a newborn with this disease."

Kirby waits knowing that fewer organs in B.C. are available for people in desperate need. Better surgical procedures, people being more careful on the roads and using seat-belts and taking better precautions such as wearing a helmet when riding a bike are some of the reasons those in need of an organ often have long waits.

Despite 85 per cent of B.C.ers saying they support organ donations, only 17 per cent are registered, B.C. Transplant spokesman Ken Donohue said. Donohue pointed out that one organ donor could potentially save numerous lives by providing two kidneys, a heart, two lungs, a liver and a pancreas. Less than one per cent of all deaths result in potential organ donations. "I think part of it is we lead busy lives and don't think about organ donations because it doesn't impact us," he said. "It just isn't on their radar."

The median wait time for a heart transplant in 2006 was two months, in 2007 three months and in 2008 it was one month. But Donohue said the wait time in 2009 will be much longer.

Kirby has been told it could be a year or more before there is a match.

People can register their decision about organ donations on the Organ Donor Registry at B.C. Transplant.

Despite his limited mobility, Kirby plans to join Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and others in a kick-off event by the City of Vancouver and B.C. Transplant to encourage the public to become organ donors.


TRANSPLANT WAITING LIST

B.C. patients waiting for organs

Kidney 225

Liver 29

Single lung 15

Heart 13

Pancreas -- kidney 9

Pancreas islet 9

Pancreas 7

Double lung 6

Total 313

source: B.C. Transplant Society

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Cyclists ride 354 miles (570km) for organ donation awareness

Sabrina Michelacci, left, Greg Davis, double-lung transplant recipient Grant Hagerty, and Terry Phillips made a stop at the Ottawa Civic Hospital yesterday during their eight-day cycling trip from Guelph to Montreal to promote organ donation.
Photo: Tracey Tong - Metro Ottawa

Greg Davis, brother of Olympic swimming champ Victor Davis, and a few companions are completing their 350 mile week-long journey today after cycling from Guelph, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec in Canada. Grant Hagerty, a double-lung transplant recipient of three years is a member of the team. Grant is a personal friend of mine and I've been very impressed with what he has been able to do since his transplant. His is truly a life transformed and at 54 he is in better shape than most people.

by TRACEY TONG Metro Ottawa

Twenty years ago, the unthinkable happened.

Greg Davis’ brother, Olympic swimmer Victor Davis, was struck by a car in Montreal.

The family rushed to the hospital, where the 26-year-old lay on life support for three days.

The world record-breaking Olympian — who won a gold and two silver medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics — had discussed organ donation with his family a year earlier, said Greg Davis. “We knew what Victor wanted.”
The family made the decision to donate his organs.

It was difficult.

“I was looking at a man who was so full of life. And he was gone. But he gave five different people a new lease on life, including a grandfather who got 17 more years,” Davis said. “So he was a hero in a way.”

Accompanied by double-lung transplant recipient Grant Hagerty and supporter Terry Phillips, Davis stopped in Ottawa yesterday as a part of the eight-day Victor Davis Memorial Ride to raise awareness for organ and tissue donation.

Hagerty knows what a big difference organ donation can make.

The Waterloo resident, who suffered from sarcoid, an autoimmune disease, was given three months to live.

“In 2005, I was on oxygen 24 hours a day and made it into the transplant program,” said Hagerty. “In August 2006, I was living on death’s doorstep.”

The double-lung transplant saved his life, he said. Now 54, Hagerty lives a full life. An active volunteer, he teaches kids to ski, speaks on behalf of Gift of Life and fundraises for university athletics.

In Canada, there are 1,750 names (in Ontario) on the waiting list for a transplant, with one person dying each day in Canada, Hagerty said.

A donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and up to 75 through tissue donation.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

The importance of organ donation

This blog post by Paul Leintz of KFGO Radio, who finally received a lung transplant after a three year wait, is a thoughtful look at the transplant process.

Paulee Pulse for 9-14-2009

Hey Everybody! Welcome to another blog. This part will be a little close to my heart. Tonight, I am going to meet with a couple of women who are awaiting double lung transplants. So, I want to dedicate this part of my blog to the importance of organ donation. There are so many people waiting for certain organs, in order to live a healthy life. I consider myself very lucky to have received a pair of lungs when I did. Seven years ago, I was in end stage lung function when I got my transplant, but there are many people who are not as fortunate as I am. I look back, and I know what it is like being on the receiving end of waiting for a transplant, and also been the one watching from the outside, as friends wait for a transplant. I can assure you that being on either side of the fence is not a fun thing to go through. As a matter of fact, I think that it is worse to know what people are going through, after you have gone through it yourself. The worst part of being on the outside, looking in, is when someone tells you that, basically, there is nothing that doctors can do for you anymore. My friend, Ryan, went through that. He was the first person I mentored, after my transplant. He fought so hard, for so long then get a germ (Burkholderia cenocepacia) that basically disqualified him from being able to get the transplant. I remember when he called me, telling me that he had the germ, and I could hear that the life had been sucked right out of him. Not too long after that, he passed away. I remember going to the funeral, and it was probably the most difficult funeral that I ever had to go through, because I put myself in his place, because I was so close to being there myself.

Basically, my point to saying all this is that I want to stress the importance of you becoming a organ donor. I waited for about three years to get my life saving call. There are so many people who are waiting for organs, that will die while waiting because there are quite simply not enough organs to go around, and they have to wait for another person to die (who are organ donors). No one looks forward to death, but wouldn’t it be a little more comforting to know that there will be a part of you that lives on, in someone who desperately needs it? After all, you are done using it…right? A lot of people are under the misconception that if you are a donor, that medical people won’t make as much of an effort to save you, if you are put in a life or death situation. That simply is not true. I don’t know who started that rumor, but it must have been someone with way too much time on their hands, and too much time to over think things.

I think that becoming an organ donor is the best way to continue to help people, even after you are gone. When I met with the family of the young man who I received my lungs from, his mother came with a stethoscope asking if she could hear her son’s lungs. Becoming an organ donor, also puts your family at a little more at ease, knowing that there is a part of you living on after you have passed. They say that the greatest gift in life, is giving life. Becoming an organ donor is just that…giving life!

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Two children gone due to CF, parents cling to hope for third

The Boston Globe published a heartwarming, sad story about a couple whose three children were all born with Cystic Fibrosis. Two of the children have died and the third is waiting for a lung transplant. Read the Globe story about the ravages of CF and a photo of the family: Two Children Gone, Parents Cling to Hope

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Americans Support Organ Donation Few Follow Through

By Tyler Woods Ph.D. EmaxHealth

At his press conference this week Steve Jobs, with grace and humility, thanked the donor, an anonymous car crash victim, to whom he owes his life after receiving a liver. Jobs is aware that Americans support organ donations and few sign up.

There are over 100,000 people in the United States waiting for organ transplants. Their plight to survive and live depends on people willing to sign up and donate organs. Studies show Americans support organ donation, but few follow through.

Organ donation takes healthy organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another. Experts say that the organs from one donor can save or help as many as 50 people. Steve Jobs CEO of Apple returned to work this week after taking off for six months with a rare form of pancreatic cancer knows this all too well.

At media event September 11, 2009, called “It’s only Rock and Roll” people were expecting him to talk about the new upgrades to Apple's iPod product line, instead Jobs called out to people to participate in organ donation. At his press conference this week Steve Jobs, with grace and humility, thanked the donor, an anonymous car crash victim, to whom he owes his life after receiving a liver. Jobs is aware that Americans support organ donations and few sign up.

Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list and 18 people die daily because they did not receive an organ they needed. "Most Americans do support organ donation," said Kris Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Donor Network of Arizona. But she and others noticed that people are not following through. In fact, 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.

Once people decide to donate, they might not know how to go about it. Patterson said the federal government's Web site www.organdonor.gov is a good source of help as it offers state-by-state guidance. "Each state is different," Patterson said. "Each state has a different organ procurement organization, and some states have more than one." Once signed up, donors should double-check their status if they move to another state, she said.

Many of the donor organizations realize that Americans support organ donations and few sign up so they have raised their profile by handing out fact sheets and brochures about organ donation and donor programs at health fairs and other community events. Any time word gets out about the inspirational real-life stories linking a donor's family and a recipient's family, non-donors are nudged to think about donating and act on it, Patterson said.

Steve Jobs knows this all to well and is taking the opportunity to get the word out. “All you need do is sign up as an organ donor or consent to the donation of a loved one's organs. But we don't sign up, we're busy, we don't like thinking about mortality, nothing is quite real until it affects us. I wasn't an organ donor before all this. I thought of myself as one, as being that type of person, but I never did anything about it.”

By people speaking out and learning more about how to participate in organ donation, organizations throughout America hope to get more awareness. They know Americans support organ donations and few sign up and they are urging American to sign up and save a life.

References
AJC
TheCalgary Herald

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Plea for donors as patients die from liver transplant delays

This article further emphasizes the urgent need for organ donation.

"At the moment 20 people die of liver disease for every one that receives a transplant..."

By Dennis Campbell guardian.co.uk

Patients with an unusual blood type who need liver transplants are dying because too few organs are being donated. The problem is affecting people with chronic liver problems who have group B blood.

Livers have to come from people with the same blood type to be suitable for transplantation. Last year 701 Britons of all blood types received a new liver, but 103 others – including an unknown number with type B blood – died because demand outstripped supply.

The plight of those affected is highlighted in today's Observer by Frank Deasy, the Emmy award-winning writer of television dramas including Prime Suspect and The Passion. Deasy, a father-of-three, has liver cancer and will die if he does not get a new organ before his tumour reaches a certain size. But he is among the 10% of the population who have type B blood. Some 46% have type O blood while another 40% have group A.

The average time a group B patient has to wait for a new liver has risen from 92 days in 2004-05 to 152 days at the end of last year. Deasy has been on the waiting list since February.

"This shortage of group B livers is serious because, of the patients listed for a transplant, about 17% – almost one in five – don't get one and die," explained James Neuberger, of the NHS Blood and Transplant agency, which oversees donation and transplantation. "That's very upsetting.

"The shortage of group B livers has been increasing for 10 years and is becoming more acute. Demand for donated livers is growing rapidly because more people are ending up with liver failure, due to increasing problems with alcohol, viral hepatitis and liver cancer, and because advances in surgery mean that more people can now be transplanted."

But the shortage of livers affects people of all blood types, not just group B, Neuberger added. He issued a plea for more people to sign the organ donor register, by which they agree to donate some or all of their organs in the event of their death. Some 16.45 million Britons, or 27% of the population, have done that.

Given the shortage of livers generally, NHSBT tries to allocate them as fairly as possible.

Imogen Shillito of the British Liver Trust, a charity which helps the two million people with liver problems and represents doctors in the field, said: "At the moment 20 people die of liver disease for every one that receives a transplant. With so few organs available, sometimes there will be shortages for less common blood groups. That can cause life-threatening delay, and the British Liver Trust is very concerned about this shortage. We need to see changes of NHS organisation and public attitude to help boost the supply of organs and allow more patients to benefit from transplants."

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Longest lung transplant survivor at Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital doing well

Adam Kingz wasn't like other teens. He didn't whine about little things, he was just so pleased to be here

JOANNA FRKETICH
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

Smithville, Ontario
Adam Kingz is the longest living lung transplant survivor from Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital.

He's made it 10 years since that terrifying and hopeful day he got a new set of lungs on Aug. 23, 1999.

It's so rare, the 14-year-old from Smithville was only the third child Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children had ever performed a lung transplant on since the program began in 1995.

The other two have since died.

"Adam's beat the odds," said Dr. Melinda Solomon, a director in Sick Kids respiratory medicine program.

Equally impressive is that he's healthy. The 24-year-old artist lives a pretty typical life other than the osteoporosis he's developed from the drugs he must take for the rest of his life to make sure his body doesn't reject the lungs.

"He's done well," said Solomon. "A lot of people survive things but it doesn't mean they get to do everything. He has."

It's a list of ordinary milestones and moments that most would take for granted. But for Kingz each is winning a battle against the odds.

"I've always proved the doctors wrong in some way," he said listing off all the dire statistics he's been quoted over the years. "It's just something for me to beat."

Ask him about each year since the transplant and he'll tell you what personal mountain he climbed.

Year 1 he walked. He walked around his hospital room, his ward, Sick Kids, his house and eventually his neighborhood.

Until then, the primary pulmonary hypertension that was killing him left him feeling winded all the time. It's a rare blood vessel disorder of the lungs that puts so much stress on the heart it eventually fails. In the hospital, he could barely go the few steps from his bed to the bathroom. Anywhere farther required a wheelchair and a chaperone -- tough for a teen wanting independence.

The transplant gave him freedom along with life.

"I just walked," he said. "I took the stairs. I would run a bit to make myself tired and catch my breath and it would go away and I could breathe again."

Year 2 he went back to school. For the first time in three years, he could go to class like every other Grade 10 student and not have illness as an excuse for his performance. Some kids in the high school didn't even know he'd ever been sick.

He especially loved being in the middle of that "two minutes before class when the hallway is busy and hustling."

For so long, he'd had to avoid crowds for fear he'd catch some minor bug that could be deadly for him. Now, he went to the movies with his friends and had his first dates.

"I had a normal teenage life again," he said.

Except for one big difference. Kingz' attitude wasn't like most kids his age.

"I was happy to be alive," he said. "I didn't let normal things in a teen's life get to me because to me they weren't a big deal. I wasn't upset if someone didn't talk to me or if a teacher did something. I was very positive about life."

It was during Year 3 that Kingz spent the first night away from home that wasn't in a hospital.

Fittingly, it was a visit to Toronto. For years, he'd lived at Sick Kids as much if not more than home. But he'd never really seen the city itself.

Now, he was in Toronto performing a play with fellow students at a festival.

"It was like a whole other side of Toronto," he said. "I associated Toronto with being sick. But my friends and I walked around and went to shops. It was cool."

Year 4 he almost lost it all.

Kingz came as close to death as he has ever been when he caught the flu and it turned into pneumonia almost overnight in December 2002.

It was the first time, in all of the years he was sick, that an ambulance rushed him from his Smithville home lights and sirens blaring to Sick Kids in Toronto.

"They told me he was the sickest kid in Sick Kids at that moment," said his mom Arlene Vandervelde.

Doctors prepared her for the worst and said even if he got better, it would be a long recovery with no chance of going home before New Year's.

"I went home Christmas Eve," said Adam with a chuckle.

Year 5, he fell in love.

He met Teisha Sabourin while peer tutoring her class to make up for school he'd missed while sick with pneumonia.

"She had a big crush on me and I was totally clueless," admits Kingz.

A mutual friend finally urged him to ask her out. Their first date was on a Friday the 13th.

Neither of them had their driver's licence so her mom drove them to the mall. They ate in the food court and went to see a movie.

"It wasn't romantic, but how many first dates are in high school?" he says laughing at himself. "I was happy with her and things just kept going until we were that couple in school that everyone knew would end up together."

Kingz only worry was that Sabourin didn't know he was a transplant survivor.

"We were out boating with her dad and I took my shirt off and she saw the scar," he said. "I was nervous but she made herself clear that it didn't matter."

Triumphant Year 6 saw Kingz officially beat the odds by living more than five years past his transplant and graduated high school.

"None of us ever pictured me graduating high school," he says about family and friends who remember the sad graduation that had come before.

In his Grade 8 picture, the oxygen tubes helping to keep him alive are as visible as his gown and diploma. He'd barely been to his last year of school and it didn't feel like there was much to celebrate.

"With high school, it felt like the real thing," says Kingz.

Year 7 Kingz got a brand new start.

His family moved to a house he loved.

"I was sick in that other house," he said. "This was a fresh start for everything. I cut the lawn here, helped with the garden and shovelled the snow."

Kingz started designing tattoos. First, an angel for his mom and then another for himself. The family has always felt a guardian angel was out there somewhere watching out for them.

Now he has a list of friends waiting for him to design something for them.

"It's a way to express myself."

By Year 8, Kingz knew what he wanted most in life so he asked Sabourin to marry him.

"I wanted to be with her," he said. "I wanted to tell her I love her."

After asking her family's approval first, he took her to Niagara Falls just after Christmas 2006.

They walked by the falls, had their hands waxed together on Clifton Hill and got engaged.

"She cried and got all giggly and called her mom," he said.

Kingz admits they were young. He was 22 and Sabourin only 20. But they were ready and Kingz didn't want to waste time.

"If I want to do something, I just do it," he says. "I don't wait. I want to live for today."

Year 9, Kingz got brave enough to leave the country. For the first time, he was a plane ride away from a Canadian hospital. He spent a week in Cuba with Sabourin.

"We went to the beach and Teisha got really badly burned," he said. "Everything was so much fun."

Today is the sweetest milestone of them all. Kingz is getting married to Sabourin this afternoon, just weeks after celebrating Year 10.

Sick Kids doesn't even have odds on surviving to Year 10 because so few children have done it so far. The Guinness Book of World Records lists 16 years, 307 days as the longest surviving single lung transplant recipient. But that was an adult and Kingz had a double lung transplant.

Kingz plans to beat them all.

"I've always wanted to live a long life," he says. "I want to live long enough to break records just for being alive."

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Patients who think they can't find a kidney transplant match shouldn't give up

By CLARE HOWARD Journal Star

CHICAGO —
Advances in medicine have outpaced public policy and public understanding about kidney transplants, creating both hope and frustration.

Jim and Rosemary Stuttle feel both.

They turned to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after learning they could not proceed with a living kidney transplant at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria because of a switch in their insurance coverage.

What they learned going through the procedure at Northwestern is that patients who think they can't find a match have reason to hope. The hospital is expanding the pool of suitable donors.

At most transplant centers, blood type compatibility is necessary. Northwestern is one of a few centers nationwide offering a technique called ABO incompatible transplantation that desensitizes incompatible blood types and makes organ donation possible.

The hospital also is working on a paired exchange program matching kidneys among couples. Even if a couple is not a suitable match themselves, they can join a Northwestern patient database searching for matches. The record for the hospital was eight concurrent surgeries with kidneys removed from four people and transplanted to four others. The potential number of pairs expands when a good samaritan donor steps into the pool. Right now the hospital's data base includes just patients at Northwestern.

Dr. Joseph Leventhal, director of the living kidney transplant program at Northwestern, is Jim Stuttle's surgeon. Leventhal said there are currently pilot programs for regional exchange databases. Work is under way to establish a national database searching for compatible matches.

He said it's a common myth that donors must be related. Unrelated but compatible matches for a transplant means life expectancy for the donated kidney is 20 years, compared with 10 years for a cadaver kidney.

Expanding the donor list is critical. Nationwide, 100,000 people are waiting for organs, and three-fourths of them need kidneys.

Last year, 166 living kidney transplants were done at Northwestern, and this year volume is expected to increase 10 percent. The hospital performs the most live kidney transplants of any medical center in the world.

Leventhal, who has a Ph.D. in immunology as well as a medical degree, said immunosuppression drugs have side effects, but current research at the hospital is focused on using stem cells from bone marrow of the donor to minimize or even eliminate the rejection risk for the transplant recipient.

About 85 percent of kidney failure is due to diabetes and high blood pressure. Leventhal said proper preventive medicine can control these risks, but in America people without health insurance often receive no preventive care.

Leventhal said he's a firm supporter of a health care system that provides preventive care for everyone.

Dr. Anton Skaro, Rosemary Stuttle's surgeon, said, "There are steady advances being made with good research and new medicines that mean huge improvements in patients' quality of life, but there are still a lot of myths about transplants. The donor does not pay. Some of this progress has come about because the transplant community has a strong lobby in Washington. It makes economic sense to push for organ transplants."

Jim Stuttle said Medicare covers kidney transplants and three years of anti-rejection medication following surgery. Medicare covers dialysis with no time limit. That means people without insurance or financial resources are pushed from the less expensive option to a more debilitating and more expensive option. They lose their kidney transplant because they can't afford anti-rejection medication.

The cost of a kidney transplant is about $100,000. Dialysis costs more than $70,000 a year. Anti-rejection medication costs about $4,000 a month, but generics are now available, reducing that cost.

This is an area where public policy has not kept pace with advances in medical treatment, Leventhal said.

Skaro said, "Look at the costs and compare year to year the cost of dialysis. Transplants pay off. By the second and third year, transplants pay dividends. Pushing transplants would put $4 to $6 billion back into the system."

Returning to a job and productivity is greatly enhanced with a transplant versus dialysis, Skaro said, furthering the economic advantage of transplants.

Because Northwestern is a virtually steroid-free transplant center, meaning patients are rapidly weaned from steroids, they do much better with quality of life issues.

"We have patients who are able to return to work in weeks," Skaro said.

Jim and Rosemary Stuttle returned home to Peoria Friday, nine days after their kidney surgery. Rosemary Stuttle expects to get back to e-mail communication with her office and return physically as soon as she can drive in a week or two. Her husband works from home, so his return to work could be even sooner.

For more information on organ donation, go to Donate Life Illinois or US Transplant.org.

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.

Georgia Launches New Online Organ and Tissue Donor Registry

By launching an on-line organ and tissue donor registry the state of Georgia joins a growing number of U.S. states and other jurisdictions that have also taken this initiative to help increase the rate of organ donation. To find out how to register in your state go to ShareYourLife.org

Savannah Tribune

LifeLink of Georgia, the non-profit organ recovery agency, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Driver Services and Donate Life Georgia, a non-profit coalition of the state’s organ, tissue and eye donation and transplantation programs and other organizations with an interest in organ, tissue and eye donation announce the launch of the State’s new web-based organ and tissue donor registry.

The newly enacted Georgia Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), also known as Senate Bill 405, allows residents to legally designate their wish to save lives as an organ and tissue donor from the comfort of their home by visiting www.donatelifegeorgia. org.

For years, Georgians were required to visit a local driver services office to register as an organ and tissue donor. Registration is still available at the driver services offices but individuals can now also choose to register anywhere that has internet access. Registrations are secure and registered donors will have the opportunity to update their profile or remove themselves from the registry.

“We are thankful to the authors of the Georgia Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act for sponsoring the bill in 2008. It now allows individuals the opportunity to save lives through donation,” said Kathleen Lilly, Sr. Vice President/Executive Director, LifeLink of Georgia. “We also want to thank the Georgia Department of Driver Services for working with LifeLink of Georgia and the donor registry team to facilitate the completion of this important technology.”

Close to 3,000 Georgians are waiting for an organ transplant and hundreds more wait for corneal and tissue transplants which can help restore vision, treat burns and prevent amputations, etc.

To learn more about the Donate Life Georgia Organ Tissue Donor Registry visit http://www.donatelifegeorgia.org or contact Donate Life Georgia at 1-866-57-SHARE (74273).

“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. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! 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

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 transplant.