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5-Way Kidney Swap Performed at Hopkins
By ALEX DOMINGUEZ
It took 12 surgeons, six operating rooms and five donors to pull it off, but five desperate strangers simultaneously received new organs in what hospital officials Monday described as the first-ever quintuple kidney transplant.
All five recipients - three men and two women - were doing fine, as were the five organ donors, all women, said Eric Vohr, a spokesman at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. The donors and recipients came from Canada, Maine, Maryland, West Virginia, Florida and California.
Several triple transplants have been done at Johns Hopkins, but hospital officials said the five simultaneous transplants performed Tuesday were a first.
Four of the sick patients had approached Johns Hopkins with a relative who was willing to donate a kidney but was an incompatible donor. The fifth had been on a waiting list for a kidney from a dead person.
Together, those nine people and an "altruistic donor" had enough matched kidneys among them to pull off a five-way swap.
The altruistic donor, Honore Rothstein, decided to donate a kidney after losing her husband and daughter to accidents and illness, Vohr said. She did not know any of the donors or recipients.
The operations involved six operating rooms, 12 surgeons, 11 anesthesiologists, and 18 nurses, and took place over 10 hours. The removal of the donor organs began at 7:15 a.m. and was completed by 11 a.m. The kidneys were implanted in operations that began at 1 p.m. and were finished at 5:15 p.m.
Last year, Johns Hopkins doctors performed a triple transplant also involving an altruistic donor who was willing to give his kidney to anyone in need. The donor was a member of a Christian group, many of whose members have given kidneys to strangers.
>snip<
Most kidney transplants use organs taken from cadavers, but doctors prefer taking organs from live donors because the success rates are higher.
In a live-donor practice used increasingly in the U.S. over the past few years, a patient who needs a kidney is matched up with a compatible stranger if the patient lines up a friend or relative willing to donate an organ to a stranger, too.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of Hopkins' transplant center and head of the transplant team, called Monday for a national kidney-swap program, saying it could help ease the nation's shortage of transplant organs and cut costs by getting people off dialysis.
He noted, however, that live-donor kidney swaps present ethical problems for some institutions since federal law prohibits receiving something of value in exchange for an organ. Some institutions feel multiple arrangements come uncomfortably close to quid pro quo, Montgomery said. He called for a clarification of the law.
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By ALEX DOMINGUEZ
It took 12 surgeons, six operating rooms and five donors to pull it off, but five desperate strangers simultaneously received new organs in what hospital officials Monday described as the first-ever quintuple kidney transplant.
All five recipients - three men and two women - were doing fine, as were the five organ donors, all women, said Eric Vohr, a spokesman at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. The donors and recipients came from Canada, Maine, Maryland, West Virginia, Florida and California.
Several triple transplants have been done at Johns Hopkins, but hospital officials said the five simultaneous transplants performed Tuesday were a first.
Four of the sick patients had approached Johns Hopkins with a relative who was willing to donate a kidney but was an incompatible donor. The fifth had been on a waiting list for a kidney from a dead person.
Together, those nine people and an "altruistic donor" had enough matched kidneys among them to pull off a five-way swap.
The altruistic donor, Honore Rothstein, decided to donate a kidney after losing her husband and daughter to accidents and illness, Vohr said. She did not know any of the donors or recipients.
The operations involved six operating rooms, 12 surgeons, 11 anesthesiologists, and 18 nurses, and took place over 10 hours. The removal of the donor organs began at 7:15 a.m. and was completed by 11 a.m. The kidneys were implanted in operations that began at 1 p.m. and were finished at 5:15 p.m.
Last year, Johns Hopkins doctors performed a triple transplant also involving an altruistic donor who was willing to give his kidney to anyone in need. The donor was a member of a Christian group, many of whose members have given kidneys to strangers.
>snip<
Most kidney transplants use organs taken from cadavers, but doctors prefer taking organs from live donors because the success rates are higher.
In a live-donor practice used increasingly in the U.S. over the past few years, a patient who needs a kidney is matched up with a compatible stranger if the patient lines up a friend or relative willing to donate an organ to a stranger, too.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of Hopkins' transplant center and head of the transplant team, called Monday for a national kidney-swap program, saying it could help ease the nation's shortage of transplant organs and cut costs by getting people off dialysis.
He noted, however, that live-donor kidney swaps present ethical problems for some institutions since federal law prohibits receiving something of value in exchange for an organ. Some institutions feel multiple arrangements come uncomfortably close to quid pro quo, Montgomery said. He called for a clarification of the law.
link