organ transplant

News Article

2008-08-15T16:05:29Z

This article entails when it's okay to transplant and the technicality of "brain" and "cardiac death" in children; if you're sensitive to the subject, I'm sorry for the post and please don't read it.

When is an organ donor really dead?

organtransplant @ 2008-08-06T12:32:00

2008-08-06T16:33:04Z

I hope this isn't too terribly off topic but I just happened to notice this...

Cadence was concieved April 11 2005.
She was discharged from her transplant surgery April 11, 2008.
She was born on a tuesday.
The gift of life through organ donation occured on a tuesday. (Thank you Daddy!)
Baby #2 EDD is April, on a tuesday.

Kidney Success

2008-08-05T21:51:14Z

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the advice and good words/thoughts regarding my kidney donation. It went as planned one week ago and both myself and the recipient are doing wonderfully. I honestly can't believe I donated an organ and yet I'm able to function at 90% capacity in such a short time. It's a blessing to be healing so quickly and to see my friend regaining her original strength and energy. Once I get my head more together I will post about the actual experience in detail, just in case another person comes along who had all the questions I did.
Thank you again.
Nicola

Anesthesia Question

2008-07-19T05:07:48Z

I had my pre-testing consult today for the kidney transplant on the 29th (I'm the donor). When I met with the anesthesiologist he said I should think about possibly choosing an epidural vs the morphine drip for pain management. I honestly didn't think there was a choice and now I'm wondering if I should take the epidural. Does anyone have any thoughts or maybe experienced an epidural and have an opinion? I'd appreciate any feedback. Thank you.

transplant games

2008-07-10T19:43:03Z

I'm headed up to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Anyone else out there in LJ land gonna be there too?

x-posted to kidneys

Surgery Back on...

2008-07-03T19:10:24Z

Back in December I was scheduled to donate a kidney but it was postponed due to weight issues of the receiver. Well after much hard work and dedication she has been re-approved for the surgery and we are scheduling it on the 29th of this month.
To be honest I'm a bit scared now. I was all pumped up back then and now that this is all happening so fast I feel at a loss. I need to regain that OMPHF, that Christmas spirit, haha. I know this sounds rather dumb but I just want to be as prepared mentally and physically as possible...

question

2008-06-24T18:45:08Z

I'm on hemodialysis going on 2 years now, with lifelong CKD, almost 3yrs on dialysis in september, I have a graft, rather than a fistula..
I'm working my way to get back on the transplant list(for some reason i wasnt given, I was placed as inactive), but I dont know about coverage, I keep reading after 36 months coverage ends(if I qualify for medicare), but how would I go about paying for these antirejection meds, medicaid?...how does that work in Ohio?
How do I go about for live kidney donor? I'm completely in the dark in this area..Any help is appreciated.

Good news...

2008-06-17T18:33:32Z

Hey guys. You have all been really helpful whenever I had questions or concerns about donating my kidney to my friend. Thank you so so so much!

But, luckily, we just found out he may not need my kidney. We're not sure, yet, but I hope not. I told him it's on reserve for him because they say he may need it later on/

Thank you for everything, I just wanted to let you guys know.

♥

Looking for Bloggers (round two)

2008-05-28T18:49:40Z

After several tedious days of working on MyKidney.com I'm happy to say that the site is just about ready for a re-launch.

Soon, you'll be meeting Elizabeth, MyKidney.com's new hemo-dialysis blogger and Jeff, our new kidney transplant recipient blogger (who just got his kidney a month ago!)

I'm still interested in adding a few more bloggers, in particular, a caretaker / family / friend blogger, a medical professional (dialysis tech, nurse, social worker, etc.) a recently diagnosed chronic kidney disease patient and a peritoneal dialysis patient. If you're interested or know someone who is, please contact me. Blogging experience is preferred, but a willingness to share your experiences freely and a commitment to post a few times a week is more important.

P.S. Anyone who already contacted me, please forgive my lack of response and feel free to contact me again if you are still interested!

Also in the new line up - a review of some new renal-friend dairy products and a contest!

Stay tune and thanks for baring with me during this time of transition.

organtransplant @ 2008-05-20T15:27:00

2008-05-20T19:28:53Z

Has anyone had surgery after their kidney transplant?

Our two year old daughter had her transplant on April 1st. They didn't tell us about how much she'd have to drink to keep the kidney hydrated... She can't drink it all on her own and has had an NG tube that is more of a headache than anything else. We almost wish she had a mickey (G-tube) but I think this option for her post-transplant is out of the question.

medicaid help

2008-04-13T02:16:36Z

According to Mississippi medicaid I have reached my limit of 12 Doctor visits a year. I don't know what to do. I am in the middle of treatments for Trigeminal Neuralgia as well as having a visit with the transplant hospital in June. I have already had to cancel with the Rheumatologist and urologist.They have also refused payment to the ER when I went in on march 8th for kidney stones (that's 400.00 I don't have). They say I cannot see another doctor until after July 1st. has anyone had this problem?can it be dealt with or am I just screwed? There has to be a way to extent the visits but no one will help me.

I am going Monday to talk with my Neurologist since its her who is the top doctor. If I dont have her help this may become permanent and lead to me being paralyzed on the right side of my face. I was supposed to see her June to discuss further treatments since the drugs are only partly working.

What if between now and then I have to go back to the ER? I have to make a choice,suffer thro it or get more bills I cant pay.

xposted to SSDI lupus and TN_Support

extend immunosuppressive drug coverage

2008-04-01T21:47:40Z

I just took action on this issue and thought you might find it interesting too. Please take a moment to read through the information and tell Congress to extend immunosuppressive drug coverage.

Click on this URL to take action now
http://capwiz.com/kidney/utr/2/?a=11220291&i=85979697&c=

If your email program does not recognize the URL as a link, copy the entire URL and paste it into your Web browser.

Teen’s Donated Organs Spread Cancer to Four Recipients, Killing Two

2008-04-01T17:38:10Z

Teen’s Donated Organs Spread Cancer to Four Recipients, Killing Two
Tuesday , April 01, 2008

The family of a 15-year-old New York boy thought they were helping him to live on by donating his organs.

Instead, the organs spread a rare, undiagnosed cancer to the four transplant recipients, according to a report from WCBSTV.com.

Alex Koehne of Sag Harbor, Long Island, died a year ago of lymphoma, but his parents were told he died from bacterial meningitis. Since then, two of the organ recipients have died and two others are battling the same disease, according to the report.

Jim and Lisa Koehne asked for an autopsy following their son’s death, according to the report. A month later they found out Alex actually had died of a rare lymphoma; the organs, however, already had been donated.

The doctor "said, ’Jim I don’t want to upset you, but we’ve heard something from the recipients that two of them had died from cancer,’" Jim Koehne told WCBSTV.com.

Koehne died a year ago at Stony Brook University Medical Center, Newsday reported last week.

The transmission of cancer through transplanted organs is rare, happening only about a handful of times annually, Newsday reported. The New York State Department of Health recently cleared Stony Brook and the New York University Medical Center, which received two of the organs, of any wrongdoing in the Koehne case.

NYU and the University of Minnesota, which also transplanted one of the diseased organs, have since changed their policies and now require stronger proof of bacterial meningitis, Newsday reported.

Medicine's Cutting Edge: Re-Growing Organs

2008-03-25T22:57:18Z

Medicine's Cutting Edge: Re-Growing Organs

The Future Is Here: Regenerative Powder, Ink Jet Heart Cells And Custom-Made Body Parts

March 23, 2008

(CBS) Imagine re-growing a severed fingertip, or creating an organ in the lab that can be transplanted into a patient without risk of rejection. It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. It's the burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are learning to harness the body's own power to regenerate itself, with astonishing results. Correspondent Wyatt Andrews brings you to the scientific frontier.
Three years ago, Lee Spievack sliced off the tip of his finger in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane.

What happened next, Andrews reports, propelled him into the future of medicine. Spievack's brother, Alan, a medical research scientist, sent him a special powder and told him to sprinkle it on the wound.

"I powdered it on until it was covered," Spievack recalled.

To his astonishment, every bit of his fingertip grew back.

"Your finger grew back," Andrews asked Spievack, "flesh, blood, vessels and nail?"

"Four weeks," he answered.

Andrews spoke to Dr. Steven Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine and asked if that powder was the reason behind Spievack's new finger tip.

"Yes, it is," Badylak explained. "We took this and turned it into a powdered form."

That powder is a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. It is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons and it holds some of the secrets behind the emerging new science of regenerative medicine.

"It tells the body, start that process of tissue regrowth," said Badylak.

Badlayk is one of the many scientists who now believe every tissue in the body has cells which are capable of regeneration. All scientists have to do is find enough of those cells and "direct" them to grow.

"Somehow the matrix summons the cells and tell them what to do," Badylak explained. "It helps instruct them in terms of where they need to go, how they need to differentiate - should I become a blood vessel, a nerve, a muscle cell or whatever."

If this helped Spievack's finger regrow, Badylak says, at least in theory, you should be able to grow a whole limb.

Advances That Go Beyond Theory

In his lab at Wake Forest University, a lab he calls a medical factory, Dr. Anthony Atala is growing body parts.

Atala and his team have built, from the cell level up, 18 different types of tissue so far, including muscle tissue, whole organs and the pulsing heart valve of a sheep.

"And is it growing?" Andrews asked.

"Absolutely," Atala said, showing him, "All this white material is new tissue."

"When people ask me 'what do you do,' we grow tissues and organs," he said. "We are making body parts that we can implant right back into patients."

It's very much the future, but it's today. We are doing this today.
Dr. Patrick Shenot
Dr. Atala, one of the pioneers of regeneration, believes every type of tissue already has cells ready to regenerate if only researchers can prod them into action. Sometimes that prodding can look like science fiction.

Emerging from an everyday ink jet printer is the heart of a mouse. Mouse heart cells go into the ink cartridge and are then sprayed down in a heart shaped pattern layer by layer.

Dr. Atala believes it's a matter of time before someone grows a human heart.

"The cells have all the genetic information necessary to make new tissue," Atala explained. "That's what they are programmed to do. So your heart cells are programmed to make more heart tissue, your bladder cells are programmed to make more bladder cells."

Atala's work with human bladder cells has pushed regenerative medicine to a transformational breakthrough.

In this clinical trial at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Patrick Shenot is performing a bladder transplant with an organ built with this patient's own cells. In a process developed by Dr. Atala, the patient's cells were grown in a lab, and then seeded on a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold.

Eight weeks later, with the scaffold now infused with millions of regrown cells, it is transplanted into the patient. When the scaffold dissolves, Dr. Shenot says what's left will be a new, functioning organ.

"The cells will differentiate into the two major cells in the bladder wall, the muscle cells and the lining cells," he explained. "It's very much the future, but it's today. We are doing this today."

Repairing The Wounded

Today, one of the biggest believers in regeneration is the United States military, which is especially interested in the matrix that regrew Lee Spievack's finger.

The Army, working in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, is about to use that matrix on the amputated fingers of soldiers home from the war.

Dr. Steven Wolf, at the Army Institute of Surgical Research, says the military has invested millions of dollars in regenerative research, hoping to re-grow limbs, lost muscle, even burned skin.

"And it's hard to ignore this guys missing half his skin, this guy's missing his leg," Wolf said. "You start asking the question, is there somebody out there with the technology that can do this for us?"

"You mean regrow the tissue?" Andrews asked.

"The answer," Wolf said, "is maybe."

At the burn unit at the Brooke Army Medical center, the very idea of regeneration brings a glimmer of hope.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Henline was the only survivor of an IED attack on his Humvee north of Baghdad.

"It's a great idea," Henline said, talking with Andrews about the military's investment into the new technology. "If they can come up with something that's less painful and can heal it with natural growth, without all this scarring, it's definitely something to check into."

Regeneration Race Goes Global

Several different technologies for harnessing regeneration are now in clinical trials around the world. One machine, being tested in Germany, sprays a burn patient's own cells onto a burn, signaling the skin to re-grow.

Badylak is about to implant matrix material - shaped like an esophagus - into patients with throat cancer.

"We fully expect that this material will cause the body to re-form normal esophageal tissue," Badylak said.

And in a clinical trial at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, patient Mary Beth Babo is getting her own adult stem cells injected into her heart, in hopes of growing new arteries. Her surgeon is Dr. Joon Lee.

"It's what we consider the Holy Grail of our field for coronary heart disease," Lee said.

The Holy Grail, because if stem cells can re-grow arteries, there's less need for surgery.

"It's a big difference from open heart surgery to this," said Babo. "If people don't have to go through that, this would be the way to go ... if it works."

The Business Of Regeneration

Corporate America, meanwhile, already believes regeneration will work. Investment capital has been pouring in to commercialize and mass produce custom-made body parts.

The Tengion Company has bought the license, built the factory, and is already making those bladders developed at Wake Forest that we told you about earlier.

"We're actually building a very real business around a very real and compelling patient need," said Dr. Steven Nichtberger, Tengion's CEO.

Tengion believes regeneration will soon revolutionize transplant medicine. Transplant patients, instead of waiting years for a donated organ, will ship cells off to a lab and wait a few weeks to have their own re-grown.

"I look at the patients who are on the waitlist for transplant," said Nichtberger. "I look at the opportunity we have to build bladders, to build vessels, to build kidneys. In regenerative medicine, I think it is similar to the semi-conductor industry of the 1980s, you don't know where it's going to go, but you know it's big."
--

Source: CBS News

organtransplant @ 2008-03-13T14:49:00

2008-03-13T18:50:30Z

World Kidney Day (WKD) is on March 13, 2008 - "The purpose of World Kidney Day is to raise awareness about the importance of our kidneys – an amazing organ that plays a crucial role in keeping us alive and well – and to spread the message that kidney disease is common, harmful and treatable."

... and what better way for this kidney patient to promote awareness than by creating a contest?

Win something from me while winning some knowledge about your kidneys and how to keep them healthy.

Wanna know what you will win? A classy, double-walled 15 oz travel mug with a ceramic outer shell and stainless steel liner from the Donate Life Store AND a mini-goodie bag filled with other small 'Donate Life' items.

P.S. I'll send it to anyone in the world, so tell anyone you'd like to enter.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to the My Kidney Blog Contest for World Kidney Day and follow the instructions there. If you're wondering, I will 100% accept 'friends-only' entries here on LJ so long as you friend me long enough for me to see it AND you still post a comment and/or the URL on the website.

2. Ta-da! That's it! I will choose a random winner by the end of the weeking using Random.com and contact you via email (and post it here, of course!)

Good luck, and please, take care of your kidneys, people...

15 yrs

2008-03-13T06:31:28Z

March 12 marked 15yrs since my liver transplant. Ive been gone the last 2 day,driving to Jackson to get a new transplant doc. Ill be going up there now once every 3 months.

Its been a good 15yrs liverwise with no problems. The new doc is funny. He was thrilled to meet me and told me I was his oldest survivor (he has a 10yr survivor also under his care).

Heres a pic of me 1 week post transplant, going down stairs for my support group meeting.

Gender matters for kidney transplants? Does Mono?

2008-02-18T06:03:19Z

Hi, I posted a little while ago about donating my kidney to my friend while I‘m under eighteen, and I’m sorry if I’m posting too much, but I haven’t found a lot of good information applying to this either.

Someone recently brought up another issue to my friend about me giving him his kidney. I think it’s BS, but I could be wrong. They told him I couldn’t’ give him my kidney because I’m a woman. Would this actually effect the ability for a transplant? Nothing I’ve read has said anything about it - and I can’t really see why it would…

And, I also have mononucleosis. You’re only infectious for about three months, I may still be infectious now, but by the time any operation rolls around I wont be anymore (I’m almost past my infectious stage now). But if you get mono you have it for the rest of your life, it’s dormant in your body, but it doesn't effect you (except making any other illness later in life harder to get over) and you're not contagious. Can I still give him my kidney if I have mono?

Thanks, again, for the help you guys have provided. Thanks for reading my second post, too. sorry! L

♥

Kidney donating under eighteen.

2008-02-13T04:38:08Z

Hello, I'm new to this community. My name's Kat'.

Do any of you have any information on donating a kidney under the age of eighteen? I'm under eighteen, I will be eighteen the nineteenth of this August. I want to give one of my kidneys to my friend if we are compatable, and my parents are in full support.

Do any of you know that there is a way for me to do this at my age? I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid thing to ask, but I've searched for the answer, but have found nothing. Either nothing helpful or nothing even pertaining to what I'm asking... I haven't spoken to a doctor to ask yet, I just got the "go-ahead" from my parents to do this, so I haven't really had the chance.

Thanks for any information, it'd be wonderful. :) If you could e-mail it to me at SheWolfKC@hotmail.com, that'd be great. You could leave it in a comment, but I don't know when I'll be able to get back on here either at work or at school.

Thanks, again. :)

♥

transplant 1st

2008-01-25T19:46:33Z

Girl switches blood type after liver transplant

HOLY CRAP!!!!! As a liver transplant recipient this is beyond words.. I can only wonder if this means she doent have to take anti rejection medications.

My Fiance did some research when we 1st bonded on liver transplants and the new studies of it. He found that the australians were working on trying to do transplants so that anti-rejection medicine would no longer be needed. One of those trials took donor cells and transfered them to the recipient at the time of the transplant. Those cells and where they put them were supposed to trick the recipients body into thinking the new liver was thier own.

If they ever got it to work tho it wouldnt work on those already transplanted, for it to be of any use to me or others who have been transplanted, we would have to get a new liver and have those cells from the new donor transplanted as well.

How awesome is this?

2008-01-24T14:19:57Z

Doctors report transplant breakthrough
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer - Wed Jan 23, 8:03 PM PSTProvided by:

Los Angeles patient Derek Besenfelder, a Public Relations director for a plastic surgery clinic, is reflected on a mirror as he poses in Beverly Hills, Calif. Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. Besenfelder who received a kidney transplant from his mother along with a bone marrow three years ago, has been able to discontinue taking anti-rejections drugs. The breakthrough in experimenta organl transplants saves recipients from taking drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent organ rejection. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES - In what's being called a major advance in organ transplants, doctors say they have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.

The treatment involved weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

"There's reason to hope these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives," said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Since the world's first transplant more than 50 years ago, scientists have searched for ways to trick the body to accept a foreign organ as its own. Immune-suppressing drugs that prevent organ rejection came into wide use in the 1980s. But they raise the risk of cancer, kidney failure and many other problems. And they have unpleasant side effects such as excessive hair growth, bloating and tremors.

Eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs is "a huge advance," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, a University of Louisville immunology specialist who had no role in the work.

"It still needs some fine-tuning so that everyone who gets treated gets the same consistent outcome ... It's not the holy grail of tolerance yet," she cautioned.

The results do not mean that it is safe for current transplant patients to go off their medicines. Doing so could lead to organ rejection and even death, doctors warn. And Sachs said the treatment will not solve the country's organ shortage.

In the 1990s, Sachs showed the treatment could work in a kidney recipient who was a good genetic match. The woman, who had an organ and marrow transplant in 1998, has not needed anti-rejection drugs for a decade.

The new study involved five people who got kidneys from parents or siblings who had slightly different tissue types from the patients. Since many kidney transplants are similarly mismatched, there is hope more people might one day be spared immune-suppressing drugs.

The breakthrough has changed the life of a Los Angeles man who was one of Sachs' patients.

Derek Besenfelder was born with a genetic kidney disease. After a year on dialysis, he decided to enroll in the experiment and received a kidney and marrow transplant from his mother in 2005. He took anti-rejection pills for eight months, but then was weaned from them. He has been drug-free for two years.

"I wanted to be off the drugs as soon as possible. I had this huge bloated face and didn't feel comfortable going out in public," said Besenfelder, 28, who works as a communications director for a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.

Doctors have experimented with giving marrow before, during or after organ transplants, while also tinkering with patients' immune systems to prime them to accept the new organs.

Sachs' treatment involved weakening each kidney patient's immune system with intravenous drugs several days before the transplant. After the transplant, the patient got an infusion of marrow from the donor to create a new immune system.

The stem cells from the marrow reprogram the body by allowing new immune cells to grow that don't try to attack the donated organ.

The patients took anti-rejection drugs but were weaned several months later.

Four of the five patients developed a hybrid immune system — where recipient and donor cells live together in the body — for a short time. They were able to stop taking anti-rejection drugs and had healthy kidney function two to five years later.

In the one case that failed, the patient had a second kidney transplant and has been on medications since.

Some researchers such as Ildstad believe the "home run" breakthrough will come when more people respond to the treatment and keep the mixed immune system permanently.

Transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh said donor cells appeared to persist in the bodies of the successful transplant recipients even if those cells were not readily detected.

As promising as the treatment is, Sachs said it won't solve the country's organ shortage problem. Nearly 98,000 people are on the waiting list, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

The study was funded by the Immune Tolerance Network, an international consortium of federal and advocacy groups. Sachs plans a follow-up study involving 15 to 20 patients at Massachusetts General and other hospitals.

In the same issue of the New England Journal, Stanford University doctors reported successfully inducing tolerance to a donor organ in a man who was born with one kidney.

Larry Kowalski, now 50, received a matching kidney and marrow from his brother in 2005 and was weaned off drugs six months later. He has been off medications for two years.

Unlike the Massachusetts General cases, doctors said Kowalski has maintained an immune system from his own cells and his brother's. The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

___

Post tendon allograft/transplant update

2008-01-22T21:08:33Z

As some of you may remember I got a tendon transplant to my ankle earlier this month. The surgery went well, I had lots of ice and lots of drugs afterwards, so I was fine. I just got my cast off today to be greeted with an ankle that was about the size of a baseball (which is normal). My incision is healing well, so that's good. I am now wearing a surgical boot to protect it (no partial weight for 3 more weeks :( . Anyway I'm back at school and there are lots of nice (and sometimes random) people to help me get around here.
I am feeling more confident about the reliability of this treatment because I have read several studies which took young patients (late teens, early to mid twenties mostly) and did a follow up on the procedure like 20 years later and they were still doing well. Hopefully now I won't have the same thing happen to my other ankle (I have overpronation in both feet).
Moving my foot feels really odd. Its very stiff. Probably because part of it is like, not actually my natural tissue and its still really swollen. I am so amazed that they can do allografts that are so advanced. I'm also amazed (and thankful) that they can take tendons out of someone, sterilize them and then give them to me with (almost) no risk of rejection.

Anyway, best wishes to everyone
Heather

Grow Support for Congressional Kidney Caucus

2008-01-15T18:26:38Z

I just a urged my Member of Congress to grow support for those living
with kidney disease. Please join me in making a difference by sending a
letter to your Representative today. The National Kidney Foundation
makes it easy to let your voice be heard inspire Congress to take
action!

Click on this URL to take action now
http://capwiz.com/kidney/utr/2/?a=10802481&i=85979697&c=

New UK donation plans

2008-01-13T23:04:45Z

after my last post regarding some not-so-encouraging news about new organ donation policies in Canada, here's another story on a debate going on in the UK about switching to an "opt-out" donation scheme. apparently, the new(ish) prime minister has come out in favor of it, which sounds to me like a good thing. It's not clear to me how far along these proposals are from becoming a reality, though.

I'm not that familiar with the similar "opt-out" system in Spain. Does anyone know what the reception and public view of it is? I imagine it would be mostly favorable since it seems to be successful there.

New Here...

2008-01-13T00:02:53Z

I was surfing LJ and found this community in hopes that I might find someone who could answer some questions for me. I'm 25 years old. When I was born, I was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia (a disease in which the biliary ducts wither away) and had a surgery that at the time, was supposed to be a permanent fix. Turns out it wasn't, and most kids that had this surgery (the Kasai) are now needing a transplant. I managed to beat the odds and make it into my mid-twenties without a transplant, but a few years ago I started getting bad liver infections from this disease. Long story short, (too late, right?) I need a transplant. I was in a transplant program in Philly before I moved here to MS, and now I'm looking to find another program and get on the list to get a new liver. I was wondering if anyone in the area knew of any good programs? And what I should expect going into a transplant. It's a bit scary. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the short novel.

Canada restricts gay organ donors

2008-01-09T17:54:25Z

Canada has put into effect a new policy restricting gay men from being organ donors.

In the US, gay men are already banned from donating blood.

Personally, I can understand fears that were raised by the case of four transplant recipients who contracted HIV and Hep-C from an infected donor, but I think that this is truly disturbing news. That they would broadly exclude any viable organs from perfectly healthy donors based solely on their sexuality while so many of us wait longer and longer for a life saving transplant is simply ridiculous.

What are your thoughts?