Monday, January 31, 2011

In death, a chance for life

From SouthCoasttoday.com

OUR VIEW: In death, a chance for life
Amid all of the pontificating on the meaning of the shootings in Tucson, it was easy to miss a simple yet amazing act of selflessness. Seeing beyond their own personal tragedy, the parents of 9-year-old Christina Taylor-Green donated her organs. Some of those organs made their way to Boston, where Christina's all-too-short life is providing another little girl with a chance to live.

She is one of the lucky ones.

The need for organ donations is hardly a secret. As of Jan. 11, there were more than 110,000 individuals on the waiting list to receive an organ donation, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That list grows by one person every 12 minutes.

To be sure, donations are making a difference. Between January and October of last year, there were 23,955 transplants, according to HHS. During the same period, there were only 12,091 donors. Of those, 6,639 were deceased. The more brutal statistic is this: Although transplants save the lives of 77 people every day, 19 others die because of a lack of viable organs.

The true tragedy is that there is no need for this. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control reveal that more than 2.4 million residents of the United States die every year, and only about half of one percent of those offer their organs, despite the fact that almost anyone can donate.

In Massachusetts, signing up for organ donation takes only a matter of minutes. You can register at www.donatelifenewengland.org right away. When you renew your license, you can simply check off a box, and the information will appear on your new license in the form of a small heart. You even have the option to donate or not donate particular organs.

Christina's death can also help dispel some of the misconceptions associated with organ donation. Except for a very limited number of exceptions, anyone, regardless of his or her age, can be a donor. The corneas of a 90-year-old may help someone see. Or the heart of a 9-year-old may beat in the chest of another young child. If the person is under 18, parents can authorize the donation, as in the case of the Green family.

End-of-life discussions are difficult for most of us. Some worry that talking about our demise may somehow hasten it. Others are simply squeamish about the topic because it is an admission of our own mortality.

But we must put aside such hesitations. If it were our parent, our spouse, or our child waiting for that chance to live, would we not move heaven and earth to give them that chance?

John and Roxanna Green certainly would have. But when they faced a truth that every parent fears above all else, that they could do no more for their precious daughter, they did not flinch. They looked in the face of senseless death and saw instead a chance for life.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Friday, January 28, 2011

Videos from TEDMED 2010 - Dr Shaf Keshavjee and Charity Tillemann-Dick

As reported in a previous post Dr. Shaf Keshavjee wowed the audience at TEDMED 2010 in San Diego last October with his presentation of the Toronto EXVIVO Lung Perfusion System that reconditions and repairs donor lungs that normally would be unsuitable for transplant.

TEDMED is one of the most prestigious annual events where leaders in the medical field discuss their ideas and I'm pleased to see that Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, who performed my lung transplant almost 9 years ago, was an invited speaker. The first speaker of the event, he followed double-lung transplant recipient soprano Charity Tillemann-Dick's opening performance and inspiring story of her struggles with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension and her transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in September 2009. I'm sure you will be as 'wowed' with both of these presentations as the audience was.

Charity Tillemann-Dick
Exactly one year ago to the day of this TEDMED talk, Charity awoke from a coma after having a double lung transplant. She now awes the audience with a beautiful aria and shares her remarkable story.

Dr Shaf Keshavjee at TED
Dr. Keshavjee mesmerizes the TEDMED audience as he unveils a breathing lung on stage and describes how this technology is saving lives.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Thursday, January 27, 2011

British girl, 12, loses liver disease battle

Sophie Thatcher

By Tracey Fowler, Reporter TheWestonMercury.co.uk

A FORMER Portishead schoolgirl has lost her battle with liver disease after a suitable organ donor could not be found in time to save her.

Sophie Thatcher knew a liver transplant was her only chance of survival when she became unwell in December. She was admitted to Kings College Hospital in London on Christmas Eve, but a suitable organ could not be found and the 12-year-old died on January 15.
Sophie’s family is now appealing for more people to carry organ donor cards so others can avoid the heartache they are suffering.
Sophie, who attended St Peter’s Primary School, was born with the rare liver disease, biliary atresia, where bile builds up in the liver and poisons it.
She received her first liver transplant at the age of 14 months when she was given a part of her dad’s liver and this allowed her to lead a near-normal life for 10 years.
In 2009, test results suggested problems were beginning to occur with Sophie’s liver again and she was put on the waiting list for a new transplant.
Mum Sharon said: “Sophie knew how ill she was toward the end but kept a smile on her face throughout.
“She was adamant if she did not make it, we should continue to campaign for families to talk about organ donation and actively encourage more people to carry donor cards.”
In June, Sophie organised a Big Yellow Monday at St Peter’s Primary School, when everyone wore yellow and made a donation to the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, the organisation that has worked closely with the Thatcher family throughout Sophie’s life.
Sharon added: “We knew Sophie may get poorly again and so we always made the best of every day and made sure we found something to make her smile.
“She was a happy, positive child who always thought of others despite her own ill health.”
St Peter’s Primary School headteacher Sharon Roberts said: “Sophie was a very kind and thoughtful person. We are proud of the way she organised the Yellow Monday and explained to others students about liver disease in children.”
The Thatcher family moved to Weston in July and in September Sophie enrolled at Wyvern Community School making new friends but staying in touch with her Portishead pals.
St Peter’s Primary School will hold a special assembly on February 2 at 3.30pm. Year seven pupils and their families who knew Sophie are invited to attend.
Sophie’s funeral will be held at Christ Church in Montpelier, Weston, on February 3. Her family hopes it will be a celebration of Sophie’s life and achievements.
After the funeral, at around 4pm, friends and family will be releasing balloons from Weston’s Grand Pier in Sophie’s memory.
To find out more about the organ donor scheme visit www.uktransplant.org.uk or call the 24 hour hotline on 0845 6060 400

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

How just two cigarettes a day have left UK woman with COPD and facing a lung transplant


By SANDRA WALSH Mail online

When Carol Thomas decided to quit ­smoking she found it pretty easy. As a typical social smoker she’d never had more than a few cigarettes a day and, for months at a time, would not smoke at all.

Like many people, she assumed ­quitting would mean any damage to her lungs would be reversed.

But five ­cigarette-free years later, Carol was shocked to learn that her ‘habit’ had left her with an incurable lung condition — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as the smokers’ disease.

‘It was a shock. I thought it was only people who’d smoked heavily for years who were at risk, or miners who’d spent their lives down the pits,’ says Carol.

‘The diagnosis terrified me — I was so young and yet I was told there was no cure, only ways of coping with the ­breathlessness and chest infections.

‘I felt ashamed, too, that I’d brought it on myself,’ she recalls.

Her case is far from unusual. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — the umbrella term for lung conditions including emphysema and chronic ­bronchitis — is the UK’s fifth ­biggest killer, responsible for 30,000 deaths a year (which is more than for breast, bowel or prostate cancer).

Typically, COPD occurs in people over 35 who are, or have been, heavy smokers. But it can also affect social smokers and even those affected by passive smoking.

‘Any amount of smoking will damage the lungs,’ says Dr Nicholas Hopkinson, COPD specialist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. While this is the main cause, there are other factors, he says, including genetic susceptibility and ­working with certain chemicals.

‘As a result the lungs become damaged and inflamed, which causes a steady decline,’ explains Dr Hopkinson. ‘The problem is that most people don’t realize they have the disease until they’ve been admitted to ­hospital, by which time they’ve probably had around 20 years of lung damage.

‘People often put their breathlessness and chest infections down to age so don’t bother seeing their GP but, in fact, there’s nothing normal about being out of breath.’

Carol’s history is typical of many sufferers.

As a child growing up in Nottingham, she recalls her grandparents and ­parents smoking; as a young adult social events meant wading through clouds of cigarette smoke.

‘Everyone around me smoked; there was always someone with a cigarette in our house,’ recalls the 50-year-old. She herself started smoking as a teenager, although often went for months at a time without smoking at all.

But by the time she was in her late 30s, the mother of two had begun to suffer recurring chest infections. ‘At least twice a year I’d get really bad bronchitis and have to take several courses of anti-­biotics to get rid of it, but I just thought I was the sort of person whose colds went to their chests.’

‘I’d given up smoking at that point, but still got chest infections.’

One particularly bad infection in 2005 put her in hospital with ­pneumonia.

‘After I’d recovered, the doctor looked at my history and said: “There’s something not right here.” They did tests, including a CT scan, and found inflammation and permanent damage to my lungs. I was told I had emphysema, part of a group of illnesses known as COPD, and there was no cure.’

Further tests revealed that Carol had a genetic condition — Alpha-1-antitripsyn deficiency — which meant her body doesn’t produce a protein that protects the lungs from damaging enzymes.

Smoking accelerates the ­damage — a non-smoker with the ­deficiency would still suffer lung damage, but it might not show up until much later in life. Around one and two per cent of COPD cases have this genetic fault.

In many cases, the lung damage associated with COPD is triggered by tar in cigarette smoke.

This damages the cells lining the airways, causing inflammation; the protecting cells that go to repair the damage exacerbate the inflammation. As a result the ­airways narrow, making it harder to draw air into your lungs.

Meanwhile, chemicals in ­cigarette smoke destroy the ­elasticity of the tiny air sacs in the lungs — these sacs, called alveoli, transfer oxygen from the inhaled air into the bloodstream. The alveoli collapse, so less oxygen passes into the blood. Eventually, patients not only find it takes more physical effort to get air in and out of the lungs, but they also have to breathe more rapidly to get adequate oxygen.

Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the two main conditions affecting sufferers of COPD, and usually come hand-in hand.

Emphysema refers to the air sacs losing elasticity, while ­bronchitis refers to the airways becoming inflamed and narrow.

‘You can’t reverse COPD but you can stabilize it,’ says Dr ­Hopkinson. ‘In the past 15 years there has been a lot of progress on treatment.

‘Stopping smoking is the single most important thing you can do. In most cases, it actually slows the progression of the disease.’

However, over the next few years Carol’s symptoms became so bad she had to give up her much-loved job at an energy company call center; she now struggles to ­perform even simple tasks such as walking up stairs and the weekly supermarket shop.

As a result of chest infections and bronchitis, she is admitted to hospital up to four times a year.

Even when she is well, she has to take 20 pills every day to help her heart and lungs cope with the strain, and is hooked up to an ­oxygen cylinder for three hours because her lungs are too weak to take in enough oxygen.

‘I’ve always been a positive, ­outgoing person but my ­confidence has been dented,’ says Carol, from Clifton, Nottingham.

‘I try to keep very active at home but tasks such as washing the floor knock me out for hours. I can never have cut flowers in the house because they can carry a bug called pseudomonas which has put me in hospital three times so far. And spray perfumes and deodorants are out as they irritate the airways and make my ­breathlessness worse.

‘But the worst things have been losing the job I loved and the fact that I can’t run around with my three lovely grandchildren.’

Carol’s diagnosis has had a profound effect on her husband of more than 30 years, Gary, and her sons, Clifford, 32, and Caine, 29.

‘They worry about me constantly,’ she says. ‘I try not to let it show how much the disease is affecting me, but it’s definitely getting worse, and it frightens me to think I won’t see my ­grandchildren grow up. I know it upsets my family to see me suffer.’

As with all COPD sufferers in the severe stages of the disease, ­Carol’s life expectancy has been dramatically curtailed and her symptoms are worsening as her lung function decreases.

Her experience should be a warning to all smokers.

As Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation (BLF), explains: ‘There is a myth that you can smoke until you’re 40 and you’ll be fine, but it just isn’t true.

‘Early signs of the disease can be detected at young as 25 — any smoker over this age should be tested,’ she says.

The BLF, which campaigns on behalf of anyone with lung ­problems, regularly holds ­roadshows where a simple breath test reveals abnormalities in lung function. Called a ­spirometry test, it is also available in most GP surgeries.

Meanwhile, Carol Thomas is awaiting tests to see if she’s ­suitable for a lung transplant. She adds: ‘Anyone who smokes should come and take a look at a COPD hospital ward.

‘You see patients struggling for breath, wearing oxygen masks, barely able to move.

‘There’s nothing you can do to turn back the clock, but you can help yourself by not smoking and keeping away from anyone who does.’

For more information about COPD and other lung conditions go to lunguk.org

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Monday, January 24, 2011

British Columbia sets new record for organ transplants in 2010

Congratulations to the Canadian province of British Columbia for the leadership role it is playing in improving the rate of organ & tissue donation. It's the only Canadian province that has an on-line donor registry and hopefully others will follow suit soon. (some provinces have registries where one can go on-line, download a form, print it, fill it out and mail it in...)

BC Transplant kicks off its 25th anniversary
by setting a new record for organ transplants

Vancouver – BC Transplant, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and announced it has set a new record for organ transplants.

In 2010, BC Transplant performed 295 transplants, a record-breaking number that surpasses 2009’s number of 211 and the previous record of 266 in 2008.

“This is a great achievement for British Columbia. Transplants depend on organ donation and the availability of organs for transplant, and I would like to acknowledge the living donors and families of deceased donors who made the difficult decision to donate organs that saved the lives of thousands of people across the province,” says Colin Hansen, Minister of Health Services. “I encourage everyone to learn more about registering to become an organ donor through BC Transplant’s Organ Donor Registry.”

“It was an honour to carry out what I knew my husband wanted—that from his tragedy, he would enable someone else to continue and embrace the beauty of life,” says Bonnie, whose husband passed away last year. “Bill always wanted to help people lead a fuller life. He achieved this with his last selfless act of organ donation. For this, we are truly grateful.”

Not only were there a record number of overall transplants, but in 2010, BC Transplant also performed:

  • Kidney Deceased     92
  • Kidney-Living Donor 97
  • Pancreas-Kidney      2
  • Pancreas             3
  • Pancreas Islet      10
  • Liver-Deceased      46
  • Liver-Living Donor   7
  • Heart               22
  • Single Lung          6
  • Double Lung         10
  • TOTAL              295

189 kidney transplants (previous record was 172 in 2007);
53 liver transplants (47 in 2008);
10 double lung transplants (six in 2008).

“The milestones reached by BC Transplant demonstrate PHSA’s commitment to deliver excellent patient care and ultimately improve the health of all British Columbians who need our services,” says Wynne Powell, Chair, Board of Directors, PHSA.

George Keulen knows the real value of these numbers. He received a double lung transplant in 2010. “Words such as ‘amazing’, ‘life changing’ or ‘humbling’ can’t begin to describe what my transplant has done for me, and the depth of gratitude I have to my donor and their family,” says George. “The 18 months I spent waiting for my double lung transplant was like being on a sinking ship and hoping the rescue boat would make it on time. The only reason I am alive today is because someone else made the decision to give, and every breath that my transplanted lungs take are a testament to that.”

There are many factors that contribute to the number of organ transplants performed each year, such as organ suitability and match on the waitlist as well as awareness of and registration on B.C.’s Organ Donor Registry. In addition, programs such as Living Donor Expense Reimbursement and the National Paired Kidney Exchange (operated by Canadian Blood Services) enable more people to be living donors, and deceased organ donation is no longer limited to patients who died as a result of brain death but now includes cardiac death.

“We are excited about having set a new record in the number of transplants performed because it means there are hundreds of patients who are now able to live healthier lives,” says Dr. Greg Grant, Provincial Executive Director, BC Transplant. ”We will continue to work towards increasing this number and improve care for patients still waiting for a transplant.”

It takes only a few minutes to register your decision on organ donation on B.C.’s Organ Donor Registry at www.transplant.bc.ca. What are you waiting for? Do it today!

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Saturday, January 22, 2011

When Will Dick Cheney Be Too Old for a Heart Transplant?

The question of age affecting eligibility for an organ transplant arises frequently and this article addresses the issues physicians must consider when listing a candidate for a heart transplant.

By Katherine Hobson Wall Street Journal Health Blog

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said earlier this week, in an interview on the Today Show, that at some point he’ll have to make a decision about whether to seek a heart transplant.

Cheney has in the past experienced atrial fibrillation, an irregular rhythm of the upper chambers of the heart. And last summer he received a left ventricular assist device to help him regain function he’d lost due to congestive heart failure. LVADs are approved both as a stopgap measure for people waiting for a transplant and for those who don’t intend to seek a transplant.

To find out more about heart-transplant eligibility, we chatted with Jon Kobashigawa, director of the heart transplant program at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. Kobashigawa, who isn’t involved in Cheney’s care, was one of the authors of the transplant guidelines developed by the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Most of the guidelines deal with the clinical factors that make someone eligible for a transplant — normally end-stage heart failure with a high chance of death within a year. Potential recipients have poor scores on measures of heart-pumping efficiency and the ability to consume oxygen during an exercise session, for example.

But age is also a factor. The guidelines say that generally speaking, heart transplants are considered an option for eligible patients aged 70 and under. Cheney turns 70 on Jan. 30, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has to make a decision in the next year, because the guidelines also say that “carefully selected” older patients may also be considered.

“Older patients in general can do as well as the younger patients at least in the short term,” says Kobashigawa, who wrote the section of the guidelines pertaining to age. But over time, obviously, they are more likely than young ones to experience other diseases that may kill them, he says.

There are more patients requiring heart transplants than there are donors, and some people do die while awaiting a donor organ. So the committees at transplant centers that decide how to allocate organs have to consider the ethics of taking, say, a 26-year-old’s heart and implanting it into someone who is not likely to live for another two decades rather than someone with a much longer life expectancy, Kobashigawa says.

One way to manage the ethical issue is through the “use of an alternate list or strategy where organs from donors (usually older donors) that would otherwise remain unused are allocated to older recipients,” the guidelines say.

At Cedars-Sinai, the oldest patient was a 77-year-old, says Kobashigawa. (There’s no lower bound; infants can have heart transplants, he says.)

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Thursday, January 20, 2011

10 Common Medical Myths That Are Completely False

Thanks to MastersInHealthCare.com for providing this. Although not directly transplant related these myths are something we should be aware of.

For hundreds of years, humans have been programmed to believe things that were downright wrong. The same goes for medicine. Medicine has been, and continues to be, poorly understood, which has given way to several medical myths. A lack of knowledge and motivation to conduct further research has allowed people to come up with their own theories about the human body and how it works. We may not know everything about the body or completely understand its functions, but we do know that these 10 common medical myths are completely false.

  • 1 - The Flu Shot Can Give You the Flu: Despite many people’s beliefs, the flu shot does not infect you with the virus. In fact, the influenza viruses in a flu shot are inactivated, or killed, and they cannot cause an infection. Some people experience soreness or redness near the injection site after vaccination, but it does not cause flu illness. If someone does get flu-like symptoms after being vaccinated it’s generally because of a couple of reasons. First, they may have been exposed to one of the influenza viruses before getting vaccinated or before the vaccine takes effect. Second, they may have been infected by a different type of virus or non-flu virus, such as rhinovirus or a respiratory illness that are not protected by the vaccine. Most other flu-like symptoms are experienced among the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
  • 2 - Swallowed Gum Stays in Your Stomach for Seven Years: The truth can be hard to swallow, but you’ll be happy to know that your childhood friends were wrong about gum staying in your stomach for seven years. We should all know better than to underestimate the power of the digestive system. When gum is swallowed, the body breaks it down just like every other food you ingest. During the digestion process, the body extracts materials that it can use and sends the rest out in the stool. Although the body cannot digest the synthetic ingredients of gum, it still passes normally from the stomach, small intestine and into the colon. Even though chewing gum is meant to be chewed, it’s perfectly fine to swallow it if need be.
  • 3 - Chocolate and Greasy Foods Cause Acne: Contrary to many beliefs, chocolate and greasy foods do not cause acne. Acne is caused by three main factors: overproduction of oil, also called sebum, irregular shedding of dead skin cells that cause an irritation of the hair follicles, and a buildup of bacteria. Although no one should go overboard on eating chocolate or greasy meals, there is no scientific link to diet and acne.
  • 4 - Cracking Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis: When doctors took a crack at disproving this myth, they found little to no truth behind it. The act of cracking your knuckles may sound bad to the ears, but it does not cause arthritis. Every time you crack your knuckles, you stretch the capsule that covers each joint and lower the pressure inside the joint, which creates a vacuum effect by causing the gasses that were previously dissolved in the capsule fluid to make a bubble and pop. While cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis, it has been linked to ligament injury, discoloration of the tendons and reduced grip strength.
  • 5 - Cold Weather Can Give You a Cold: This one couldn’t be more false. Cold weather alone does not cause people to catch colds – you have to contract the virus from an infected person to get one. Colds are more common during the winter months because people are generally indoors during this time and the viruses can spread more easily. In fact, cold viruses tend to survive better in the spring, summer and early fall months because humidity levels are high. So until you swap germs with a sick person, you won’t get a cold from wet hair, cold temperatures or going hatless outside.
  • 6 - You Have to Wait 30 Minutes After Eating Before You Can Swim: Despite your mother’s warning, there is no scientific proof that swimming right after a meal is bad for you. It was commonly believed that people should refrain from swimming 30 minutes after eating because blood flows to your digestive tract and limits the blood needed to move your arm and leg muscles when swimming. Scientists have dispelled this myth, noting that while the body does use extra blood during digestion, it does not use enough to prevent your arms and legs from functioning properly. If anything, you may experience slight abdominal cramping if you swim right after eating.
  • 7 - You Lose Most of Your Body Heat Through Your Head: The common belief that people lose most body heat through their head is all in their head. Even though you do lose about 10 percent of body heat through your head, it is not the main exit. Body heat is lost through any and all parts of the body that are uncovered in cold temperatures. The myth likely goes back to a flawed military study from the 1950s that tested the loss of body heat when soldiers were exposed to extremely cold conditions. The volunteers experienced rapid heat loss in their heads, but the experiment was flawed because their head was the only part unclothed. Regardless of the myth, it’s a good idea to keep your head and most body parts covered in cold temperatures to stay warm, but know that you aren’t going to turn into an icicle without a hat.
  • 8 - Eating Turkey Makes You Sleepy: Just because you’re ready for a nap after eating a large Thanksgiving feast doesn’t mean the turkey is the culprit. The myth claims that turkey makes you sleepy because it contains a nutrient called tryptophan, which is used by the body to make sleep-related serotonin. Tryptophan is a natural occurring amino acid that is obtained from food protein, but turkey is just one of many sources of this essential acid. There are several other amino acids in turkey, but tryptophan is less abundant. It takes a while for these amino acids to circulate through the bloodstream and increase brain serotonin in the brain. A more plausible cause of post-turkey dinner drowsiness is the fact that you’ve eaten more in one sitting than you’re probably used to, and it takes a great deal of energy to digest all that food, therefore making you more sleepy.
  • 9 - We Only Use 10 Percent of Our Brains: Whoever believes that people only use 10 percent of their brains may not have a brain. I’m only kidding, but the truth is humans actually use every part of the brain and its always active. Even when you’re resting or thinking, at least 10 percent of the brain is in use. Every part of the brain has a specific function and multiple portions are being used at the same time to perform daily activities, such as breathing, making dinner and driving a car. Even if all parts of the brain aren’t firing neurons and communicating at the exact same time, you can be certain that the human brain is being worked 24/7.
  • 10 - Eating Late at Night Makes You Gain Weight: Fear not, late-night snackers, the myth about gaining weight from eating late at night are just plain false. Sure, you probably aren’t going to go run off that bowl of ice cream or bag of popcorn before bedtime, but it’s not going to make you balloon up overnight either. Over the years, scientists have conducted several studies to dispel this myth and results show that eating late at night does not increase one’s chance of gaining weight more than any other time of the day. However, it’s important to note that late-night snacking after you’ve consumed your normal caloric intake during the day may cause weight gain and should be avoided.
Thanks again to MastersInHealthCare.com for providing this.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Exploring Vitamin D’s Connection to the Lungs

Study suggests that a deficiency in vitamin D contributes to an increase in lung transplant rejection.

I've been taking 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day (to counteract bone loss) for several years now and so far have had no bouts of rejection following my lung transplant 9 years ago. Whether or not vitamin D is a factor remains to be seen but I plan to continue this daily regimen.

According to the Mayo Clinic the current daily recommended dose of vitamin D for adults 50 and older is 400 to 600 international units (IU). But they say many researchers believe that a higher amount is warranted because of the many health benefits. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends a daily intake of 800 to 1,000 IU per day for adults over age 50. The upper daily limit considered safe for use is 2,000 IU per day, but there's debate about this level. Very large doses of vitamin D taken over time can cause ill effects, including nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness and weight loss.


From MDNews.com

A recent study conducted by Loyola University Health System and presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research annual meeting in October 2010, suggests that a deficiency in vitamin D contributes to an increase in lung transplant rejection.

With transplants, there is already the risk of the body failing to accept the organ. Vitamin D is thought to assist the immune system in recognizing the transplanted organ.

The study analyzed 122 lung transplant recipents who were patients at Loyola University Health System between January 2005 and June 2008, measuring their vitamin D levels after surgery. Of the participants, a deficency was found in 50%, while 18% had normal levels and 32% could not be calculated.

These figures correlated with the 51.7% of patients whose lung transplants were rejected within the first year. Researchers concluded that higher levels of vitamin D would significantly increase patients' chances for successful transplants. Future studies will explore the role of vitamin D therapy in lung transplant treatment.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Monday, January 17, 2011

Good Samaratin donates bike to boy who had his stolen last week

I'm very pleased to post this good news story following last week's article about the boy from northeast England, suffering from obliterative bronchiolitis, who was heartbroken over his bike being stolen.

By Daniel Howlett The Northern Echo
A BOY with a serious lung condition has been gifted a bike by a generous reader after his previous one was stolen. Adam Cameron, from Darlington, suffers from obliterative bronchiolitis, a rare condition that results in permanent scarring of the lungs.

It is incurable, but can be relieved with physiotherapy, oxygen and, in severe cases, a lung transplant.

The 12-year-old used his blue Carrera mountain bike to ride to and from school. His conditionmeant he could only exercise in short bursts, which the bike allowed him to do.

However, last Tuesday, at about 7.30am, his mother woke to find their shed at the family home in Martindale Road had been raided and the bike was stolen.

The Northern Echo published an appeal and even businessman Duncan Bannatyne tweeted a link asking for help to find it.

Felix Devine, of Ferryhill, County Durham, read the story and felt he had to help.

"I won a bike last year in a raffle and have always intended on using it, but never got round to it, " said Mr Devine.

"It was a great shame about Adam's bike, so I wanted to help out."

Adam's mother, Joanne Cameron, said: "It really restores your faith in human kindness. Adam was out riding all day yesterday and he'll be going to school on it today.

"He is a very lucky boy, to go from being devastated that his bike has been stolen to this. It really is beyond belief.

"I have even had a phone call from a security firm who are going to install CCTV on my shed to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Mr Bannatyne also offered to buy Adam a new bike.

"I was thrilled with the response the story got through the internet, " said Mrs Cameron. "If his bike is found or if Mr Bannatyne does go through with it then I'll hold a charity raffle with all of the money going to Breathtakers, a charity that supports people with Adam's condition."

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact Durham Police on 0345-6060-365

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Father: Organs of youngest Tucson victim donated to 'little girl in Boston'


This Just In (CNN)
The father of Christina Green, the youngest of six people killed January 8 at U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' meet-and-greet outside an Arizona supermarket, told CNN Friday that some of his daughter's organs "went to a little girl in Boston."

"It was very poignant to find out. That's what Christina was all about," John Green said. "It's a blessing."

Asked whether he and his wife would like to meet the girl who received the organ one day if she were willing, John Green said, "Oh yes, and I'd give her a big hug."

On Thursday, Christina's family, friends, classmates and hundreds of mourners filled St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tucson for a funeral, all of them passing under a giant American flag that was recovered in the aftermath of the terror attacks in New York on September 11, 2001 - the day Christina was born.

Dozens of mourners paid their respects by standing outside the church, which was at capacity.

Representatives from professional baseball also were in attendance. Green was the daughter of a Major League Baseball scout and the granddaughter of former baseball manager Dallas Green.

The girl's father was the only speaker. Before the tearful crowd, he spoke directly to his departed daughter: "Christina-Taylor Green," he began, "I can't tell you how much we all miss you."

"I think you have affected the whole country," John Green said.

Pink and white flowers, along with pink bows, adorned the church. The University of Arizona choir sang "Ave Maria." Family friend Katy Martin sang Billy Joel's "Lullaby." "Goodnight, my Angel, time to close your eyes," the song began.

Christina, 9, had recently been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School, and a neighbor, impressed with Christina's civic interest, took her to the event to meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Tucson resident Jared Lee Loughner, 22, is facing federal charges in the January 8 attack.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ill boy heartbroken by cruel bike theft

Hopefully a good Samaratin will come forward to help this 12-year-old boy from north east England. It breaks my heart to read stories like this.

By Daniel Howlett, Darlington reporter The Northern Echo

A BOY with a serious lung condition who used his mountain bike for exercise has had it stolen.

Adam Cameron, 12, suffers from obliterative bronchiolitis, a rare condition that results in permanent scarring of the lungs.

It has no cure, but can be relieved with physiotherapy, oxygen and, in severe cases, a lung transplant.

He used his blue Carrera mountain bike to ride to and from school. He is only able to exercise in short bursts because of his condition and his bike allowed him to do this.

Yesterday, at about 7.30am, Adam's mother, Joanne, woke to find that the shed at the family home in Martindale Road, Darlington, had been broken into and Adam's bike stolen.

Mrs Cameron said: "He is absolutely devastated. It had been locked up for some time during to the winter months, then he came down with the flu, so he hasn't been able to use it.

"Just as the weather is turning and his flu is going, his bike is stolen.

"It was an expensive bike and it was the only thing they bothered to take. He got it for Christmas last year and I need to find the receipt before I can claim on the insurance.

"He needs the bike to keep himself fit and healthy. He can only do short bursts of exercise, but the bike provided a perfect way for him to enjoy it.

"The police have been and are returning later. If anybody has information, or if they could even bring the bike back, it would be greatly appreciated.

"I would imagine the reason it was taken was to sell on, so I think there must be somebody out there who knows where it is."

Despite his problems, Adam is a regular fund raiser for the charity Breathtakers, which supports people with his condition. Last year, he ran the three mile Junior North Run to raise money for the charity.

The bike is a blue Carrera Vulcan adult mountain bike with white writing and spokes. Anyone with information is asked to contact Darlington police on 0345-60-60365.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Girl who had heart transplant reversed celebrates 18th birthday

by Linda Elias, Cynon Valley Leader

2011 will mark a milestone year in the life of heart transplant patient Hannah Clark.

It will be five years since the teenager underwent pioneering heart surgery, which hit the headlines around the world.

And Hannah will also celebrate her 18th birthday in May – a day her parents once thought they would never see. Hannah made medical history in 1996 when she underwent heart surgery at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. Her body had rejected her donor heart – 10 years after she received a transplant.

The donor heart was disconnected and Hannah’s own heart – which was never removed – was able to cope on its own.

Hannah, of Edward Street, Miskin, is believed to be the first UK patient to have her heart transplant reversed. The first heart operation when Hannah was a baby saved her life because she had cardiomyopathy, which made her heart double in size, meaning it could have given out within a year.

The “piggy-back” donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around her body, allowing her own heart, which continued beating, to rest.

During her young life, Hannah has also suffered from pneumonia, kidney failure and blood poisoning but her donor heart kept working well until a routine check-up showed her body was rejecting it. Surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub performed the original heart transplant when she was two and advised surgeons who carried out the operation in February 2006.

Despite her earlier ill health, Hannah is confident, full of fun and believes in living life to the full. Her motto is ‘life’s too short to be miserable’.

Hannah said: “Thanks to the operation, I can now live a normal life just like my friends. It’s great to feel so healthy and not to have to depend on medication.

“I haven’t decided how to celebrate my 18th birthday but I’m really looking forward to it.”

The teenager is a student at Pontypridd College where she is studying child care. Her goal is to work as a play development officer in a hospital environment. She is an active fundraiser for Great Ormond Street Hospital and a marathon sponsored swim in the spring will help fund youngsters attending the Transplant Games in Belfast this summer.

Hannah still sees a heart specialist every six months and suffers from slight chest problems but apart from that is glowing with health.

Hannah’s mum Liz, 45, said: “Hannah is amazing. She now is able to live life to the full. Looking back, I cannot believe how lucky we are to have Hannah and to see her living life to the full.

“There were a number of times when we almost lost her and now when I see her going out with her friends or setting off for college, I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. I go into Hannah’s room every night and say a silent thank you prayer for all the wonderful medical staff who saved her life.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Monday, January 10, 2011

UK man, 66 "too old’ for a life-saving transplant"

This story got my attention immediately because I personally know quite a few patients who received lung transplants in their 70's and have done quite well. Most centers have stopped using age as a criteria but rather assess each individual on their physical condition and the potential for an optimal outcome to a lung transplant.

from This Is Lancashire
A MAN claims he has been handed a “death sentence” after health chiefs took him off the waiting list for a double lung transplant.

Bill Clark, aged 66, has been told he has between 12 and 18 months to live without the procedure.

The grandfather-of-two, who is seriously ill with lung fibrosis, claims doctors told him he is too old for the operation.

Bosses at Wythenshawe Hospital, which cares for him along with the Royal Bolton Hospital, say they take a range of factors, including age, into account and Mr Clark is no longer suitable for surgery.

Mr Clark, who is married to Barbara, said: “They have given me a death sentence and I am devastated.

I don’t think 66 is old, I’m a fit person and someone at 40 might not do as well as me, everyone is an individual and it shouldn’t be about age.

They don’t seem to care and they’re not giving me a chance. I feel like I am just waiting to die.”

The retired employee of Bury’s primary care trust has been on the transplant list for three years, after developing lung fibrosis in 2004. He is now housebound, uses a wheelchair and is hooked up to oxygen 24 hours a day.

The family, of Duchy Avenue, Over Hulton, has already suffered tragedy, after the couple’s daughter, Gail, died at the age of five in 1976. She suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and her parents donated her kidneys.

Mr Clark, who also has a son, Paul, said: “I am prepared to take any chance to have a normal life. I put into the NHS for 48 years and this is the first thing I have wanted, I feel let down.

“They wanted me to lose weight which is difficult on steroids. I have, and I can get down more given time, I’ll do anything. We’re all upset and there’s nothing we can do.”

The hospital says the decision is not made by one person but a team of experts, who look at a number of factors.

A spokesman said: “He wasn’t taken off the register purely because of his age, his risk profile was considered to be quite high.

“We consider a number of things, age, weight, lack of mobilisation and the particular disease. There are national and international guidelines that anyone over 65 is at higher risk but it’s not always what we stand by, we have done a transplant on a 67-year-old.

“For this particular gentleman there were a number of reasons his risk profile was too high.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Travel Nursing and Organ Transplantation: the Potential

I am pleased to post this guest article.

Donor statistics

The surgical replacement of damaged or diseased organs is referred to as an organ transplant with the healthier organ usually being taken from a person shortly after death. It is generally considered to be the last resort for people who are terminally ill based on the failure of a critical organ. Depending on the deceased person’s age and the condition of their organs at the time of their death, the following organs and tissues can be donated:


Here is some further information regarding the different organs mentioned above where transplanting them is concerned:

Heart– even though they beat roughly 2.5 billion times in a person’s lifetime, they will only survive about 4 hours once they are removed from the donor’s body.

Kidneys – a transplanted kidney has an average lifespan of 10 to 15 years. But his is only an average and some live much longer as published in Wikipedia
  • Bill Thompson is the longest surviving American kidney recipient. Having received his kidney in 1966 at age 15, it has survived over 40 years .
  • Denice Lombard of Washington, D.C., received her father's kidney on August 30, 1967, aged 13 and is still alive and healthy forty years later.
  • In Kenya, John Dan of Nairobi is the longest known surviving kidney recipient in East Africa. He received a kidney from his brother in 1984 and is still alive twenty six years later.
  • Liver – the mortality rate among individuals waiting for a liver transplant is almost 15%.





  • Lungs – single or double transplants as well as a single lobe can be transplanted although the latter will not regenerate.





  • Pancreas – portions of the pancreas can be transplanted while the donor retains functionality of the remaining portion of the organ.





  • Small intestine – although it is rare, portions of the small intestine can be successfully transplanted.





  • Transplant tourism

    Transplant tourism, or more specifically organ transplant tourism is the common terminology that refers those individuals who travel internationally for the sole purpose of having an organ transplant procedure performed. They will typically travel to poor or “3rd world” countries to have the surgery performed. What is so interesting about transplant tourism is that donors in these countries sell organs, such as one of their kidneys, because they are easy to coerce into donating them, poor, or just vulnerable. They are not altruistically motivated to do so.

    Organ transplant tourism came about due to a couple of factors. First and foremost, organ transplanting is viewed as being a life-saving maneuver. Secondly, organ transplant tourism became a viable option in order to counteract the shortage of the overall donor organ supply. It is not a fad, nor did the concept arise because it was fashionable. UK Transplant, the NHS website illustrated this fact with the following quote – “Today, more than 9,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant. But less than 3,000 transplants are carried out each year.”

    Is there a connection between travel nursing and organ transplants?

    The question often arises regarding the possible correlation between travel nursing jobs and organ transplants. Travel nurse jobs have grown in popularity in an effort to counteract the shortage of nurses on a worldwide scale, especially where LPN’s, LVN’s, and RN’s are concerned, as well as other Allied Health professionals.

    Additionally, when you take factors such as education, expertise, and patient care into consideration, the transplant nurse has certain skills that other nurses do not possess. So it stands to reason that travel nursing jobs requiring organ transplant knowledge can be available in the more medically advanced countries of the world.

    “You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
    Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here
    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 or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

    Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

    Wednesday, January 05, 2011

    Luck, love and generosity give lawyer a second chance at life with lung transplant

    At death's door, he turned away

    By Ryan Cormier The News Journal
    WILMINGTON -- After months of slowly suffering from a rare and possibly fatal lung disease, Jeff Bove finally got the call he was waiting for in May, in the middle of the night.

    In desperate need of a double lung transplant, Bove had become a prisoner in his Chadds Ford, Pa., home, needing oxygen to walk only a few steps.

    The Wilmington attorney had been on the United Network for Organ Sharing waiting list for a transplant, and the time had come.

    He and his wife, Lloyd, drove up to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was prepped for surgery. He was laying on the operating room table, about to be put under, when came in at 3 a.m. The lungs were defective and could not be used.

    It was disappointing, Bove says. But it was also something he'd been warned could happen, and he returned to his vigil.

    Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in early 2009, Bove was told that 45,000 people die from it each year, about the same number as breast cancer. The disease slowly thickens and scars lung tissue until it is impossible to breathe.

    After the false alarm in May, Bove's phone didn't ring again for nearly two months. This time, the eight-hour operation was a success and there was an instant transformation, thanks to the lungs donated from a Ohio man who had died of a stroke.

    With minimal post-surgery pain, Bove was walking up and down stairs three days after surgery.

    "It was a thrill being able to walk with no issues," says Bove, 58, who then underwent eight weeks of physical therapy to build his lung function. "I'm eternally grateful for this gift because I would be dead right now."

    Bove had never checked the organ donor box on his driver's license before being struck by the life-threatening illness. He wasn't against it; he just didn't think about it.

    Now he's not only a walking billboard for donation, he's an outspoken proponent.

    "I am living proof as to what organ donations can do for people," he says. "It's truly a gift of life."

    A gift that lets him start a new year and a new decade with a renewed vigor.

    Friends and fans rally

    The hard-charging lawyer and musician, who works at the Orange Street-based intellectual property law firm Connolly, Bove, Lodge & Hutz, had been profiled in The News Journal in April.

    Waiting to be added to the transplant waiting list, he was releasing a four-disc box set of his late '60s work with bands like Martha Lidd. It's a collection of music recorded long ago, but put together during his illness as he tied up the loose ends of his life, including family affairs, in preparation for surgery.

    After the article ran and shortly after he broke the news of his ailment to the members of his firm, he was deluged with hundreds of well wishes from friends, colleagues, former bandmates and fans.

    "I was overwhelmed by the cards, e-mails and telephone calls.

    It just went on and on and on, hearing from some people I hadn't talked to for decades," he says. "It really kept me uplifted and positive about this. It created a real positive vibration."

    And staying positive had been a goal of his. Confronted with the diagnosis, he adopted a clinical, intellectual approach, taking on the illness almost as another legal case. He did as much research as possible, including searching for the best doctors he could find, while trying to maintain the most positive attitude he could.

    Even though his friends and colleagues are well aware of how driven Bove is, the rapid reversal of his health was still a bit of a shock.

    Scott Birney, a longtime friend and musical collaborator of Bove's, says the two looked around in amazed appreciation when they arrived at their parking spot at Delaware Stadium on Labor Day.

    Just as they do for most home games, the pair were there to watch the University of Delaware football team, which was playing West Chester University.

    Before his surgery, Bove's goal had been to make it to the first UD game of the season. Birney wasn't sure he would, but kept telling him, "Sure you will, Jeff."

    In the shadow of the stadium, the old friends raised bottles of Beck's -- Bove's first beer in quite a while -- and Birney made a toast.

    "Jeff, only you can make the West Chester game significant," joked Birney, frontman of the veteran Delaware act Sin City Band. "We were just walking around there in disbelief. And he was as disbelieving as us, even with his best foot forward."

    Bove concurs.

    "It was a great day when we drove down to that game," he says. "All the folks down there had read the article and everyone at the tailgate came over. It was really overwhelming."

    A shot of energy

    Bove has established the Jeff Bove ILD Research Fund at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and has pledged to raise at least $25,000 for the cause. All proceeds from the box set of his music, available at www.marthalidd.com and iTunes, goes to the research fund.

    Chip Connolly, managing partner of Connolly, Bove, Lodge & Hutz, says Bove worked from home right up until his July 6 surgery. And within two days of the operation, attorneys began receiving work-related e-mails from Bove once again. They were coming from Bove's hospital bed in the intensive care unit, and he's been back working ever since.

    "I've never had a close colleague go through something like that and then to come out of it so successfully, it's just given the firm such an uplift of energy," Connolly says.

    Even with Bove feeling better than ever, he still faces some uncertainty. The survival rate for lung transplants is more than 82 percent at one year, nearly 60 percent at three years and more than 43 percent at five years. Plenty of people live more than a decade.

    Just as opposing attorneys and his own doctors have learned, Connolly reminds everyone, "Never bet against Jeff Bove."

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