New Study Shows Viability of Heart Pumps for Older Heart-Failure Patients

I recently attended an event at Toronto General Hospital where it was announced that 100 LVAD devices were successfully implanted by their team and several patients spoke of their life-saving experience with this "bridge-to-transplant". Sometimes such implants are used to support heart function and it's refreshing to see in this article that one patient has been helped by this device for 9 years.

Positive outcomes of LVAD therapy included recovery, survival rate and quality of life, according to study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology

SAN DIEGO, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Results of a clinical research study at Sharp Memorial Hospital indicate that patients 70 years of age or older have good functional recovery, survival and quality of life at two years when undergoing left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy for heart failure. The study was released in the June 21 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The study's lead author, Robert M. Adamson, MD, medical director of the cardiac transplantation program at Sharp Memorial, and colleagues concluded that LVAD therapy should be considered an "attractive option" for some patients, and that advanced age alone should not determine whether or not a patient receives LVAD support. The research team also noted that "very good results can be achieved in a community hospital setting with a focused effort from a dedicated team."

Patients in the study were implanted with Thoratec's HeartMate II LVAD, which received FDA approval for bridge to transplantation therapy in April 2008 and for destination therapy in January 2010 for transplant-ineligible heart-failure patients. At Sharp Memorial, which serves as a Thoratec training site, the transplant team has implanted nearly 130 HeartMate II devices. The physicians and staff there have been working together since the 1980s and performed San Diego's first heart transplant in 1985. Since then, the team has performed more than 340 heart transplants and numerous implant procedures. They also have the longest LVAD-supported patient in the world, who first received the device more than nine years ago in March 2002.

"With an increasing population of elderly patients with advanced heart failure who have limited treatment options, the FDA's approval of LVAD therapy make sense for many individuals," said Dr. Adamson. "Older patients in the study were very appreciative of the improved quality of life afforded by LVAD therapy. While younger patients want to live longer, older patients want to live better."

During the research period, 55 patients received the HeartMate II between Oct. 5, 2005, and Jan. 1, 2010, as part of either bridge to transplantation or destination therapy trials. Patients were separated into two age groups: 70 years of age or younger (30 patients) and older than 70 years of age (25 patients). Pre-operatively, all patients were classified as having severe heart failure, showing symptoms of cardiac insufficiency at rest (New York Heart Association Class IV). The research team compared outcome measures between the two groups including survival, length of hospital stay, adverse events and quality of life.

The survival rate between the two groups was not statistically different. For patients older than 70, the survival rate was 97 percent at one month, 75 percent at one year and 70 percent at two years. For patients 70 and younger, the rate was 96 percent at one month, 72 percent at one year and 65 percent at two years.

The average length of hospital stay for the older group was 24 days, which was similar to length of stay for the younger group (23 days). The researchers found no differences in the incidence of adverse events between the two groups, and quality of life and functional status improved significantly in both groups.

Co-authors of the study at Sharp Memorial include Marcia Stahovich, RN; Suzanne Chillcott, BSN; Sam Baradarian, MD; Joseph Chammas, MD; Brian Jaski, MD; Peter Hoagland, MD and Walter Dembitsky, MD.

About Sharp Memorial Hospital
Sharp Memorial Hospital, which first opened its doors in 1955, is part of Sharp HealthCare, San Diego's most comprehensive health care delivery system, recognized for clinical excellence in cardiac care, women's services, cancer, orthopedics, multi-organ transplants, rehabilitation and behavioral health services. To learn more about Sharp Memorial, visit www.sharp.com/memorial or call 1-800-82-SHARP (1-800-827-4277).
SOURCE Sharp HealthCare

“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 beadonor.ca,
British Columbia, other Canadian provinces

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Presumed consent system debated in UK

Would you opt out of organ donation?

Delegates to the British Medical Association's annual conference will debate a system of presumed consent for organ donation.

But would you opt out of donating your organs?

The opt-out or presumed consent system of organ donation has been considered by many countries as a way to deal with the acute shortage of donor organs for transplantation. The Guardian Newspaper has run a feature on this and for an excellent discussion of what the public thinks about this go to the readers' feedback section.

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Duke researchers learn how lung fibrosis begins and could be treated

When I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis almost 12 years ago I was told the only cure was a lung transplant. That still holds true today and this research news from Duke University gives us potential hope for the future.

Duke University Medical Center
DURHAM, N.C. 27-Jun-2011 – An invasive cell that leads to fibrosis of the lungs may be stopped by cutting off its supply of sugar, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which affects about 100,000 people in the U.S. each year and leads to death within three years of diagnosis, has only one therapy in the U. S.: lung transplantation.

Duke researchers have found a possible new treatment by identifying a cell surface receptor on the invasive cells called myofibroblasts and an enzyme that produces a sugar the receptor recognizes.

Senior author Paul Noble, M.D., the Duke Division Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, and his team used a mouse model and later, human cells from IPF patients, to show that the invasive type of cell depends on both the enzyme that makes a sugar called hyaluronan and the cell receptor that recognizes hyaluronan, CD44.

"The animal model we used targeted excessive production of hyaluronan in the myofibroblasts," Noble said. "We found that these cells invaded and destroyed surrounding tissue matrix similar to the behavior of cancer cells during metastasis."

The study was published in the June 27 online edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The researchers reduced lung fibrosis in living mice by treating them with a blocking antibody against the CD44 receptor or stopping the production of the enzyme that produces hyaluronan. .

The invasiveness occurs when the myofibroblast produces excessive hyaluronan. Because the sugar is necessary for living (embryos without it don't develop), the sugar production cannot be completely blocked. Instead, the overproduction of the sugar must be stopped to keep the invasive cells from overtaking the spaces in the lung where vital gas exchange occurs.

The process of fibrosis in the lung is like a healing wound on skin, Noble said. The fibrotic cells clamp down, pull in the skin, and hold it together more tightly. In the lungs, this clamping down of small airways prevents essential respiration and leads to death due to irreversible loss of lung function.

An earlier paper Noble published in March in Science Translational Medicine showed that intracellular signaling proteins called beta-arrestins were necessary for fibroblasts to invade tissue. Mice with a targeted deletion in beta-arrestins didn't develop severe pulmonary fibrosis. He did this work with receptor-science pioneer Robert Lefkowitz, M.D., of Duke Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry.

The two studies, taken together, suggest several approaches to treating invasive fibrosis in the lungs, Noble said. They might specifically block hyaluronan production and the receptor for the sugar. Or they might block the invasion process by targeting beta-arrestins to prevent myofibroblasts from making contact with the matrix (noncellular part) of the lung.

Noble thinks looking at additional targets to block the invasion process might be the best approach of all. "If we can study human fibroblasts and also the transgenic mouse as a model system, we could find more clues to stop the cells from invading," he said. "Several drugs are already approved that may have these properties that we need."

###
Other authors include: Yuejuan Li, Dianhua Jiang, Jiurong Liang, Eric B. Meltzer and Alice Gray of the Duke Division Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine; Riu Mirua and Yu Yamaguchi of the Sanford Children's Health Research Center, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA; and Lise Wogensen of the Research Laboratory for Biochemical Pathology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.

Funding for the study came from NIH grants and the Drinkard Research Fund.

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Florida men must prove finances available for heart, kidney transplants

..they want $15,000 in an escrow account, because they don't want to give a man a heart who can't take care of it,

By Chase Purdy  theledger.com
 For two women looking to save their in-laws, the time to act is now.
Her husband's father in desperate need of a new heart, Hannah Gregory of Lakeland took to her phone and computer to reach out to someone, anyone, willing to contribute to her effort.

Crystal Bell did the same thing, all the way from Brunswick, Ga., to help her sister-in-law in Lakeland find a new kidney.

For years, the medical ailments afflicting Kenny Gregory, 54, and Jane Bell, 31, have kept their family members on the hunt for help. The goal has always been simple, to restore some flicker of normalcy in their lives.

"He's on an IV pump right now at home," Gregory said of her father-in-law. "He has three grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. He's unable to even go outside and toss a ball with the kids."

Though their conditions differ entirely, the intensity of their need is growing. For Kenny, his pulmonary pressure must stabilize before he can be placed on a heart transplant waiting list. The longer he waits, the more diseased his heart becomes, Hannah said.

"The last couple of months he's been in and out of the hospital more than he's been at home," she said. "Your pacemaker is supposed to shock you when you go out of rhythm. His pacemaker is working at every heartbeat."

Unable to exercise outside for fear of straining his cardiomyopathy in the Florida heat, Kenny's doctors have urged him to try and build strength by walking through Walmart on a regular basis — a far cry from 11 years ago, when he often passed the time by fishing.

For Jane Bell, much of her life has been a miracle. When she was 16 years old, doctors estimated she had six years to live.

Nearly 16 years later, Bell said she considers her life a blessing, despite day-in and day-out worries and the crush of time.

For two years she's undergone regular dialysis treatment to keep her body working properly.

She said the average lifespan for someone on dialysis is five years, and the waiting list for a new kidney normally takes about three years.

Despite her condition, Bell said she lives her life in stride.

"I don't know anything different, this is just my life," she said.

"I think that my feeling is that back in August when I needed dialysis ... I came back with a renewed sense of understanding that the things you go through in life is for the understanding of how you can help other people."

For Crystal, the decision to volunteer herself became the best way to help.

Unwilling to stake her faith on the organ waiting list, she decided to offer her own kidney.

And even though she isn't the right blood match for her sister-in-law, it hasn't stopped her from taking a hands-on approach to finding an organ that will work.

"Time isn't something that we have a whole lot of, so we're trying to find someone as quickly as possible," she said.

Jane needs a donor with Type O blood, and with the help of social networking websites such as Facebook, Crystal said she's working to find someone with that blood type willing to donate one of their kidneys.

So far she's gotten several responses.

For the Gregory family, the first step to finding a heart is demonstrating to doctors that finances are available for medical care after surgery, some $3,000 a month, initially.

Kenny Gregory said his insurance will pay for most of the cost, leaving him with still expensive co-pay bills.

"That's why they want $15,000 in an escrow account, because they don't want to give a man a heart who can't take care of it," he said.

Hannah Gregory echoed her father-in-law's sentiment in her pleas for help.

"He will die if he doesn't get the money," she said.

"That's a son, husband, father and grandfather. He has people and things to live for.


"TO LEARN MORE

To learn more about supporting Kenny Gregory in his quest for a new heart, please call the National Transplant Assistance Fund at 800-642-8399 or visit www.ntafund.org
.
Learn more about Jane Bell's search for a new kidney by visiting her pages on Facebook called "Donate Life for Jane".

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Dad, 43, can adopt foster daughter after sister donates kidney

Steven and Tracy Grattage with their foster child Amy
thisisstaffordshire.co.uk
A 43-YEAR-OLD transplant patient is looking forward to adopting his foster daughter of seven years – after being given a kidney by his sister.

Seriously-ill Steven Grattage and wife Tracy had always missed out on formal adoption because of concerns over his health.

But that can now change after Steven was given a kidney by his sister, Susan Howard, after six years on dialysis.

Now the former Royal Doulton worker is recovering at his Milton home following the operation at a Coventry hospital.

Steven, of Millrise Road, said: "This new kidney will change my life completely.

"We've come close to adopting nine-year-old Amy before, but there have always been concerns about my health.

"Amy will be our daughter eventually and we hope to adopt her now I've had the transplant.

"I want to get on with life and have the things that can be taken for granted like being a fun dad, going back to work and going on holiday."

One of Steven's kidneys first failed in 1990 when he was 22. He had six years of dialysis before undergoing his first kidney transplant.

But that kidney failed in 2005 and Steven has spent the past six years in and out of hospital undergoing four dialysis sessions a day.

He added: "My sister Julie first offered me a kidney, but she had to pull out because of ill health.

"Then Susan said she'd do it and she was a match for me. She has two children herself and she'd never had a major operation before.

"This is why people should carry donor cards.

"It's so important, but people don't realize how important it is and it's the last thing on their minds."

Before having the transplant, Steven needed pioneering treatment which involved washing his kidney clean of antibodies which had built up following so many blood transfusions.

Father-of-one Steven is also looking forward to being able to work again after the operation.

He added: "I don't mind what work I do. I'll clean the streets if I have to because after being at home for six years it'll be a nice change.

Wife Tracy, aged 44, who lost her job at Royal Doulton, said: "I think the adoption panel was unsure about us adopting, because if anything happened to Steven then they wouldn't know what would happen to Amy.

"Amy is brilliant. She understands the situation and realizes that he gets tired and we cannot always do things she'd like to.

"She's so excited and cannot wait for Steven to recover a bit more."

Sister Susan, aged 48, of Silverdale, said: "Steven had been that ill for so many years and it's good that I could donate.

"Everything went really well with the operation.

"I have a few tiny scars on my abdomen, but for Steven this is life-changing."

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Nurse, liver recipient, pitches for organ donation awareness

Nurse Using Her Own Experience to Encourage Organ Donation

By Meryl Lin McKean fox4kc.com
KANSAS CITY, KAN— A nurse from the University of Kansas Hospital will be throwing out the first pitch on Saturday evening before the Royals-Cubs game, but it's because of her remarkable past as a patient.

Kris Brees received a new liver 21 years ago after a long-term battle with an inherited disease, and it has been something that she has only rarely mentioned to coworkers. Now, she is using her experience to encourage others to become organ donors.

"There was nothing about her that would ever lead anyone to believe she'd had a liver transplant," said KU Hospital vice president Lila Martin.

But not only is Brees a transplant patient, "I was KU's first liver transplant patient," she says.

Brees was the first of the 872 liver transplants performed at the hospital to date, and afterwards she decided to give back by becoming a nurse.

On Saturday, Brees will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Royals-Cubs game. She hopes that her story will be a strong pitch for others to become organ donors, and to sign donor cards.

"She's a walking billboard to why organ transplant is successful and why we need to continue doing it," said Martin.

"I want them to see they have a chance to really do well," said Brees.

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

FDA approves new drug for kidney transplant immunosuppression

FDA NEWS RELEASE
FDA approves Nulojix for kidney transplant patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Nulojix (belatacept) to prevent acute rejection in adult patients who have had a kidney transplant.

The drug is approved for use with other immunosuppressants (medications that suppress the immune system) -- specifically basiliximab, mycophenolate mofetil, and corticosteroids.

Betatacept (Nulojix) is a type of drug called a selective T-cell costimulation blocker. The drug helps to prevent organ rejection after a kidney transplant. Without immunosuppression, the body can reject a transplanted organ because the immune system recognizes the new organ as foreign (transplant rejection).

By preventing rejection, Nulojix, given through 30 minute intravenous infusions, works with other immunosuppressants to keep the new kidney working.

“Nulojix is a new option for kidney transplant patients,” said Edward Cox, M.D., M.P.H, director, Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This new medication used in combination with other immunosuppressants helps control the immune system and prevents organ rejection in patients receiving kidney transplants.”

Nulojix was evaluated in two open-label, randomized, multicenter, controlled Phase 3 studies that enrolled more than 1,200 patients and compared two dose regimens of Nulojix with another immunosuppressant, cyclosporine. These trials demonstrated that the recommended Nulojix regimen is safe and effective for the prevention of acute organ rejection.

Nulojix carries a Boxed Warning for an increased risk of developing post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD), a type of cancer where white blood cells grow out of control after an organ transplant. The risk of PTLD is higher for transplant patients who have never been exposed to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the cause of mononucleosis. Transplant patients who have not been exposed to EBV have more difficulty mounting an effective immune response to the virus if they get infected after transplant; typically they get exposed to the virus at time of transplant, as it is carried in around 80 percent of donated organs. Patients should be tested for EBV and should only receive Nulojix if the test shows they have already been exposed to EBV.

Another Boxed Warning on the Nulojix label, as well as labels of other immunosuppressants, warns of an increased risk of serious infections and other cancers.

Common adverse reactions observed in transplant patients in the trials included low red blood count (anemia), constipation, kidney or bladder infection, and swollen legs, ankles, or feet. Any transplant patients, including those receiving Nulojix, should limit the amount of time spent in sunlight because of the risk of skin cancer and should not get live vaccines because of the risk of infection.

Please see accompanying Full Prescribing Information, including Boxed WARNINGS at www.NULOJIX.com or www.bms.com.

More than 89,000 patients are waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which is overseen by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration.

Nulojix is marketed by Princeton, N.J.-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

For More Information:
Approved Drugs:Questions and Answers
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

British man back from the brink of death after lung transplant

James O'Grady, who was waiting anxiously for a lung transplant on the U.K. Organ Donor Register

James’s organ transplant was made possible because the donor’s family gave permission for their relative’s organ to be donated soon after he died. “My life has been totally transformed and I’ve written to the donor’s family to say I know saying thank you is not enough but I wouldn’t let the lung go to waste and I would give life the best shot, for him and for me.”

By Cara Simpson Coventry Telegraph.net

JAMES O’Grady was verging on death over a year ago – now he has bounced back to health thanks to a life-saving lung transplant.

The 56-year-old Longford man was a prisoner in his own home just 15 months ago, hooked up to a restrictive oxygen tank as he waited patiently for a donated organ.

James said he had about the same chance of winning the National Lottery as he did finding a matching donor lung.

Now he is branding his transplant and rapid recovery a miracle, and urges others to become donor card carriers.

His lucky day arrived on March 15 last year when he received a call to say a matching lung had been found after a year waiting on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

He was rushed to Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital where he underwent a six-hour transplant operation.

“This is the closest I’ve ever come to a miracle,” he said.

“I honestly thought I’d be dead before last year was out because one infection could have killed me.

“My attitude was to take each day as it comes because I knew worrying wouldn’t make the organ arrive any sooner.”

James was diagnosed with the chronic lung condition emphysema in 2000 and placed on the Organ Donor Register in 2009.

The Telegraph reported his anxious wait for a donor lung in 2009 as part of a long-running campaign ahead of that year’s British Transplant Games in Coventry.

James had come to terms with the realisation his time was running out because of the lack of numbers on the Register.

Speaking to the Telegraph at the time, he said: “Breathing is something everyone takes for granted. You don’t even think about it until it’s too late and you’re in the same position as I am now.”

James’s organ transplant was made possible because the donor’s family gave permission for their relative’s organ to be donated soon after he died.

And because of their generosity, James is now able to live life to the full.

Reflecting on the first precious moments after he came around from surgery, he said: “I remember seeing the bright lights of the hospital and the nurse pulling out a large elephant trunk-like tube out of my throat.

"She told me to take a few deep breaths and when I took my first one, it was like drinking fresh water straight from the spring, like sweet syrup was trickling down my throat.

“It was amazing. To say breathing is something we all take for granted is a major understatement.”

James, a former chef and social worker, is now able to walk, enjoy the outdoors, go shopping on his own and exercise.

James said: “My life has been totally transformed and I’ve written to the donor’s family to say I know saying thank you is not enough but I wouldn’t let the lung go to waste and I would give life the best shot, for him and for me.”

James’s wife Joy said: “The transplant has given me my husband back.

“A transplant not only helps the patient, it helps their families too. I’m no longer his carer anymore, just his wife.”

For more information and to join the NHS Organ Donor Register phone 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.organdonor.nhs.uk

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Irish woman with CF has world-first lung transplant while suffering from aspergillosis

By Fergal Gallagher Irish Independent
THE young Dublin woman who underwent a world-first double lung transplant yesterday revealed the first thing she did after recovering from surgery . . . she treated herself to a shopping spree.

Becky Jones (20) thanked the surgeons in Manchester who helped her to breathe again and told the Irish Independent that she has never felt as well as she does since the life-saving surgery.

The Castleknock woman made history after becoming the first cystic fibrosis patient to undergo a lung transplant while suffering from a drug-resistant infection called aspergillosis, caused by a common airborne fungus.

Becky, who is still recovering at the University Hospital of South Manchester after the operation on May 29, yesterday told the Irish Independent: "I had forgotten how it felt to be healthy. I'm not even sure if I've ever felt this well.

"I feel completely different. I can breathe again, which is amazing. Before the operation, I was on oxygen 24/7 and I felt breathless walking from place to place," she added.

Although she dreams of becoming a fashion designer, Becky's chronic condition forced her to spend all her time sitting at home.

But now that the doctors have allowed her out of the hospital for a few hours, she has been out for lunch and even indulged her love of fashion by squeezing in some shopping. "I can't believe it, I absolutely love it," she said.

Her mother, Aisling, has been at her bedside since her daughter got the call that a donor had been found and was overcome with emotion yesterday as she described Becky's transformation.

"Becky is doing fantastically well, she can't believe her luck. She's still in recovery stage but feels so well already compared to how she was before the operation.

"We're absolutely thrilled and very grateful to the surgeons, doctors and all the staff here for taking Becky on in the first place and for doing such an amazing job."

Becky was airlifted from her home in Dublin to the hospital in Manchester for the operation at the end of May and her mother admitted that she and her husband, Barry, spent a traumatic day while the 11-hour operation took place.

Anxious

"We were told by her surgeon, Piotr Krysiak, that it was a very high-risk operation and there was a chance that she could die on the table, so naturally we were very anxious," Aisling said.

"We tried not to dwell too much on it as we waited for the operation to finish."

Her only daughter had been waiting for a lung for 14 months and it was a long road that brought her to this life-saving operation in Manchester.

"Once she developed the aspergillosis it made her case much more complicated. The doctors in Tallaght didn't think it was possible for her to have an operation," Aisling said.

"It was Jim Egan, a transplant physician in the Mater Hospital, who encouraged us to go to Manchester to see a specialist in that area, Professor David Denning."

Prof Denning suggested a lung transplant because he couldn't cure her and there was no way of treating her condition.

"It was a transplant or nothing," Aisling explained.

"The transplant centre in Manchester was able to take on the operation only because it had the help of a specialist in the aspergillosis area who was prepared to treat her before and after the operation."

Becky is hoping to be discharged from hospital on Monday or Tuesday, but will have to stay in Manchester as an out-patient for a month or so before returning home.

She said she was looking forward to getting home to see her three younger brothers and her father Barry, who are currently in Dublin.

Top of her agenda when she gets back is to travel and take a break in the sun, but after that she is hoping to go to college.

"I'd love to study fashion design. That's all I've ever wanted to do. So now that I can actually do things, it's what I'm going to focus on."

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Can there be any greater Father's Day gift? Dad goes under the knife to donate kidney to his son

By Paul Bentley dailymail.co.uk

It is traditionally the children who give their dads the presents on Father's Day.

But when 24-year-old Brian Zollman was hospitalized with kidney problems and desperately needed a donor his dad Steven swiftly did away with all of that - offering up an organ to save his son's life.

After going under the knife on Friday, the pair, from Longwood, Florida, spent the Father's Day weekend recovering in hospital in ward beds side by side.

The ultimate gift: Brian and Steven are recovering in a ward with each other for company (click image for larger view)
Brian, who is a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida, has suffered from kidney problems throughout his life.

He was born with a defect in the valves between the kidney and bladder but after many operations when he was a child, the condition was deteriorating.

When doctors said last year that it had got to the point at which he required a transplant, his parents both quickly offered themselves up as donors.

Steven, 54, was found to be a suitable donor and the procedure was arranged for this weekend at Florida Hospital Orlando.

Before the operation, Steven said: 'I'm giving my son a kidney and as you can expect we are kind of nervous.

'It's not your everyday gift but I just want him to have as good a life as he possibly can.'

Son Brian added: 'My kidneys have been deteriorating very slowly over my entire life but they have been watched by doctors.

'I believe the plan was to test everyone in the family until we found someone.'

Speaking of his father's gift, he added: 'I have no idea how to say thank you. What kind of Father's Day gift can live up to this?'

Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Roberts told the Orlando Sentinel that Steve would be out of the ward in a few days, having undergone a minimally invasive procedure.

The greater risks involved with receiving an organ transplant mean Brian Zollman faces a longer recovery and is almost certain to remain in hospital for at least a week, where he will be treated with anti-rejection drugs.

More than 111,000 are on the waiting list for organ transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

KIDNEY DONATION: WHY IT IS SO HARD TO FIND COMPATIBILITY

There are many hurdles to navigate when a patient requires a kidney transplant.

In almost all cases the donor and recipient have to have compatible blood group. With more than 100,000 patients on the organ transplant waiting list in the U.S., family members may put themselves forward to donate a kidney - but not all share blood groups so often the match is not so easy to find at home.  

Most donated kidneys, in fact, come from deceased donors rather than family members. Since medication which prevents rejection is now so effective, it is not essential that donors are genetically similar to recipients.

Blood group incompatibility between donor and recipient used to be considered an absolute biological veto against proceeding to transplantation because antibodies present in the recipient's blood can cause immediate and catastrophic rejection of the transplanted organ.

A new procedure, however, has changed all that. It involves giving an extra anti-rejection drug (Rituximab) to help switch off the cells that generate anti-blood group 'A' antibodies in the recipient's body. A further treatment called plasma exchange removes the antibodies that are already present in the patient's blood.

The plasma exchange treatment needs to be carried out several times before the transplant operation to ensure that the recipient's body accepts the new kidney.

After this, as with any kidney transplant, the recipient then has to take routine anti-rejection drugs indefinitely.

Further requirements for kidney transplants vary from state to state. Some programmes limit the age one can be to donate or to receive an organ and others insist the patient is otherwise is good health.

A patient may be excluded from the list for suffering from cardiovascular disease, incurable terminal infectious diseases and cancer. 

People with drug problems and or mental illness may also be excluded.

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian 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

Son's kidney donation to father remembered on Father's Day

On Father's Day, University of Michigan grad grateful for 'remarkable' gift

By Angelique S. Chengelis The Detroit News

Brooklyn, Mich. — More than likely, Michael Heroy has received his share of forgettable Father's Day gifts...Until this year.

On Jan. 12 at the University of Michigan medical center, Heroy, who has two degrees from Michigan, including an MBA, and played four years in the Michigan Marching Band, received a kidney from his son, Andy.

"Obviously, I'm lucky to be here," Heroy said during a U-M Hospital news conference Sunday at Michigan International Speedway to promote organ donation.

His four children volunteered to donate a kidney, and three were compatible. Michael Heroy was joined at the news conference by his sons Andy and Chris, the lead engineer on the No. 5 Sprint Cup car, which competed in Sunday's race at MIS, along with the two transplant surgeons from U-M that handled the surgeries.

Former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, grand marshal of Sunday's race, also was there to encourage people to sign up to become an organ donor at wolverines4life.org.

There are 111,000 waiting nationally for an organ transplant, and there were 17,000 kidney transplants last year. Every day, 19 people die while waiting for an organ transplant and another 138 are added to the national waiting list. About 400-450 transplants are performed at U-M every year; it is one of the largest such programs in the country.

Carr said his involvement is to make this a "life-saving network throughout this country."

Shawn Pelletier, a U-M surgical director, removed Andy's left kidney. The kidney was transported to Christopher Sonnenday, an assistant professor of surgery, who needed three hours for Michael Heroy's successful surgery. Heroy went home three days later with normal kidney function.

"It's truly remarkable the gift Andy gave his father," Pelletier said.

Sonnenday said the Heroy's story proves how important it is to be an organ donor.

"This (surgery) emphasizes the success and impact of kidney transplantation," Sonnenday said.

Andy Heroy said his recovery went well; he is determined to maintain a healthier lifestyle. He is eating better and quit smoking.

"I wouldn't be where I am today without him, and now the same is true for him," Andy said, laughing. "It's one of those beautiful gifts that keeps on giving. It's the best gift you can ever give anyone."

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States,
register in your state at organdonor.gov (Go to top right to select your state)

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian 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

Song composed in memory of donor son

Stacey Davis of Monticello, Arkansas sent me this touching story and a link to a video they posted on You Tube. I am pleased to share it with my readers.

"I wrote this song and put this video together in memory of my 26 year old son. He was a police officer and left behind "angel wings" on October 4, 2006. This song is my story ---

View video Angel Wings
"My son was the police officer in the video. He was a tissue donor and we were told there were several recipients. In the video, there are also a couple of pictures of a friend of mine who lost both her sons within a short period of time. They were about my son's age. They were donors. The picture on the video of the woman listening to the man's heart with a stethoscope is my friend and the recipient of her son's heart. She has the stethoscope to the recipient's chest listening to her son's heart!. In one of the pictures, she is sitting with several people and there is a young child in the front who received her son's kidney. I wrote this song several months ago but it took me awhile to decide to share it because it is so personal. I posted it on Facebook just to share with my family and friends and got such an overwhelming response, I decided to send it to you. Maybe it will comfort and bless someone else.
Stacey Davis."

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at organdonor.gov (Go to top right to select your state)

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian 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

Ontario residents can now become an organ donor online

Congratulations to the Province of Ontario, Canada and Trillium Gift of Life Network for implementing an online organ and tissue donor registry.

Ontario residents can now register their consent to be an organ and tissue donor online at beadonor.ca.

Residents need to register even if they have signed a donor card. A signed donor card is not recorded in the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s database and may not be available when needed. Organ and tissue donor registration is the only secure and guaranteed way to make your decision to save lives known.

As of today in Ontario there are 1541 patients on the waiting list for a life saving transplant and only 400 transplants have taken place this year. Every 3 days someone dies in Ontario before an organ becomes available for their life-saving transplant.

At beadonor.ca anyone 16 years of age or older can register to be a donor in just a few minutes. Ontarians are asked to please visit this site and share the link with their families, friends and other contacts. By doing this they can help to achieve a huge increase in the rate of of organ donation and save many more lives in the process. 

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

Register online to be a donor in Ontario at beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at organdonor.gov (Go to top right to select your state)

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian 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

Transplantation of lungs: recovered from donors after euthanasia

(openPR) - Donors after cardiac death (DCD) have increasingly provided organs for lung transplantation in Belgium. Between 01/2007-12/2009 in Leuven 17 isolated lung transplantations were performed from cardiac death donors, including four after euthanasia, Dirk van Raemdonck and colleagues (Leuven) report. "All donors expressed their wish for organ donation once their request for euthanasia was granted according to Belgian legislation. All donors suffered from an unbearable non-malignant disorder." One recipient died from a problem unrelated to the graft. The other three patients are still alive - in a good condition.

"The donors were admitted to the hospital a few hours before the planned euthanasia procedure. A central venous line was placed in a room adjacent to the operating room. Donors were heparinized immediately before a cocktail of drugs was given by the treating physician who agreed to perform the euthanasia.

The patient was announced dead on cardiorespiratory criteria by three independent physicians. The deceased was then rapidly transferred, installed on the operating table, and intubated. The thorax and abdomen were shaved, disinfected and draped. A rapid sterno-laparotomy was performed.

The abdominal team took care of liver and kidney preservation with a rapid flush cooling technique via a cannula inserted into the abdominal aorta. The thoracic team then opened pleural cavities and quickly inspected both lungs before topical cooling with ice-cold saline was started. The pericardium was opened, the main pulmonary artery was encircled,and a 24 Fr pulmoplegia catheter was inserted through the right ventricular outflow tract. The heart was decompressed and vented by cutting left and right atrial appendages. Antegrade pulmoplegia was started with 2.8L Perfadex solution while the lungs were ventilated with 50% inspired oxygen, followed by retrograde flush with one additional liter of the same perfusion solution after the heart was extracted.

Lungs were then explanted, packed and transported to the recipient hospital in the standard way..."


D. van Raemdonck et al. Initial Experience with Transplantation of Lungs Recovered from Donors after Euthanasia.
in: Weimar, Bos, Busschbach (Eds.) Organ Transplantation - Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects. Pabst, Lengerich/Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-89967-639-6

Pabst Science Publishers (Lengerich/Westfalia, Germany) is publishing ten psychological and nine medical journals; furthermore, Pabst is publishing more than hundred psychological and medical books per year – partly specialized scientific literature, partly specialist literature written for laypeople.

Pabst Science Publishers
Eichengrund 28
49525 Lengerich
Tel. 05484-308
Fax 05484-550
E-Mail: pabst.publishers@t-online.de
Internet: www.pabst-publishers.com / www.pabst-science-publishers.com

“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 beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at organdonor.gov (Go to top right to select your state)

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian 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