Health News
- Researchers Discover Why Common Blood-pressure Medicine Doesn't Work For Some People: Your Kidneys Don't Want To Lose Salt
Each year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written around the world for thiazide drugs, which lower salt to treat high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects 28 percent of Kentucky adults, according to the state Department for Public Health....
- Stranger Donates Kidney After Knowing Recipient 5 Minutes; Could Boost Living Kidney Donations, Which Have Better Odds
Two strangers were randomly asked to take part in a five-minute demonstration of living art. It led to one of them donating a kidney to the other, Bailey Loosemore reports for The Courier-Journal. The idea of the demonstration, produced...
- Today Is World Blood Donor Day
The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions aimed at increasing individuals? ability to access health care. However, even if the financial and other external barriers are overcome, problems with accessing health care will still exist if health...
- April Is National Donate Life Month
With more than 105,000 people nationwide waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, including nearly 2,000 people in Maryland, the need for designated organ, eye and tissue donors has reached an all time high. Sadly, on average 18 people in the United...
- Organ Donors Save Lives
Did you know there are nearly 2,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in Maryland? There's never been a better time to sign up to become an organ donor, or to celebrate the accomplishments of transplant recipients. While the opening...
Health News
UK HealthCare performs longest kidney donor chain to date; most donors and recipients meet each other for first time
The University of Kentucky hospital recently performed its first kidney donor chain, and six of the eight patients who took part in it met their respective recipients or donors for the first time at a news conference Sept. 23.
"UK HealthCare has been performing kidney transplants since 1964, but this is really a milestone for us and for the Commonwealth," Dr. Roberto Gedaly, chief of abdominal transplant surgery, said in a UK news release. "We're thrilled to come together today to celebrate our first successful kidney donor chain with donors, recipients, and many of the staff who made this complicated series of procedures possible."
"Kidney donor chains, also called kidney paired exchanges, occur when a living kidney donor is incompatible with their intended recipient. The donor (then) may agree to donate their kidney to a different patient, provided that their loved one receives a kidney from someone else. When multiple pairs are involved, this causes a domino effect, with each recipient receiving a matched kidney from a stranger," writes UKNow.
UK HealthCare performed the 8-person chain in-house over the course of two days. The chain was initiated by one altruistic donor, who was willing to give her kidney to anyone who needed it: Nicki Coulter, a former nurse from Bloomfield, Ky.
"I used to be a nurse, and I just felt like this was something I needed to do," Coulter said. "I was blessed with good health and a good support system in my family. So I decided to do it!"
"With a kidney chain, the altruistic donor then benefits not just one person, but a whole group of people," said Dr. Stephen Strup, chief of the UK Division of Urological Surgery, said in the release. "Having that one person step up and offer to donate a kidney anonymously to anyone who needs it allows us to start matching incompatible pairs through the chain."
To date, this is the longest donor chain in Kentucky, says the release.
"UK HealthCare has been performing kidney transplants since 1964, but this is really a milestone for us and for the Commonwealth," Dr. Roberto Gedaly, chief of abdominal transplant surgery, said in a UK news release. "We're thrilled to come together today to celebrate our first successful kidney donor chain with donors, recipients, and many of the staff who made this complicated series of procedures possible."
"Kidney donor chains, also called kidney paired exchanges, occur when a living kidney donor is incompatible with their intended recipient. The donor (then) may agree to donate their kidney to a different patient, provided that their loved one receives a kidney from someone else. When multiple pairs are involved, this causes a domino effect, with each recipient receiving a matched kidney from a stranger," writes UKNow.
UK HealthCare performed the 8-person chain in-house over the course of two days. The chain was initiated by one altruistic donor, who was willing to give her kidney to anyone who needed it: Nicki Coulter, a former nurse from Bloomfield, Ky.
"I used to be a nurse, and I just felt like this was something I needed to do," Coulter said. "I was blessed with good health and a good support system in my family. So I decided to do it!"
"With a kidney chain, the altruistic donor then benefits not just one person, but a whole group of people," said Dr. Stephen Strup, chief of the UK Division of Urological Surgery, said in the release. "Having that one person step up and offer to donate a kidney anonymously to anyone who needs it allows us to start matching incompatible pairs through the chain."
- Researchers Discover Why Common Blood-pressure Medicine Doesn't Work For Some People: Your Kidneys Don't Want To Lose Salt
Each year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written around the world for thiazide drugs, which lower salt to treat high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects 28 percent of Kentucky adults, according to the state Department for Public Health....
- Stranger Donates Kidney After Knowing Recipient 5 Minutes; Could Boost Living Kidney Donations, Which Have Better Odds
Two strangers were randomly asked to take part in a five-minute demonstration of living art. It led to one of them donating a kidney to the other, Bailey Loosemore reports for The Courier-Journal. The idea of the demonstration, produced...
- Today Is World Blood Donor Day
The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions aimed at increasing individuals? ability to access health care. However, even if the financial and other external barriers are overcome, problems with accessing health care will still exist if health...
- April Is National Donate Life Month
With more than 105,000 people nationwide waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, including nearly 2,000 people in Maryland, the need for designated organ, eye and tissue donors has reached an all time high. Sadly, on average 18 people in the United...
- Organ Donors Save Lives
Did you know there are nearly 2,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in Maryland? There's never been a better time to sign up to become an organ donor, or to celebrate the accomplishments of transplant recipients. While the opening...