Transplant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8vNecPhTwA April is Donate Life Month; make your wishes known and don’t let misinformation stop you from saving lives ROCHESTER, Minn. — April is Donate Life Month, a national recognition to help encourage Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and to celebrate those who have saved lives through the gift of donation. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Edwards are in the downloads. Nationally, Mayo Clinic has over 3,000 patients on the waiting list for an organ transplant. In recognition of Donate Life Month, Brooks Edwards, M.D., director of the William J. von Liebig Center for Transplantation and Clinical Regeneration and a transplant cardiologist, is available to the media to answer common questions and address myths and misconceptions pertaining to organ donation. Some common myths include: Myth: If I agree to donate my organs, the hospital staff won't work as hard to save my life. Fact: When you go to the hospital for treatment, doctors focus on saving your life — not somebody else's. You'll be seen by a doctor whose specialty most closely matches your particular emergency, not by a doctor who performs transplants.

Wear blue and green, attend flag raising ceremony to commemorate ROCHESTER, Minn. — Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede will proclaim Friday, April 11, “Donate Life Day” in Rochester at a ceremony at the Gift of Life Transplant House (north house) starting at 4 p.m. that day. A 3-by-5-foot Donate Life flag will be raised as part of the ceremony to increase awareness and honor organ donors. The event is open to the public. The Gift of Life Transplant House is located at 705 Second Street SW. More than 120,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. Nearly 2,000 of those are children. Mayo Clinic has over 3,000 patients on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national waiting list. An average of 18 people die each day in the United States waiting for transplants that can't take place because of the shortage of donated organs. April is National Donate Life Month, and events are happening across the country to increase support for organ, tissue and eye donation. In addition to the Donate Life Day event in Rochester, there are several other ways to participate or observe Donate Life Month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGftj-R2drI My Family’s Battle with Rare Kidney Disease Gives Hope to Others Seeking a Lifesaving Transplant  By: Jane Sullivan Horne "When I ...

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My wife is 31 and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 7. She had a baby three months ago, and her blood sugar levels were never really controlled. Doctors tested her kidney function and said there is “a little damage” but nothing to worry about. They said a pancreas transplant might be an option. How risky is this? What medications will she need to take following the transplant? ANSWER: Most patients with type 1 diabetes do not require a pancreas transplant, because newer insulin regimens can keep their blood sugar under control. However, someone in your wife’s situation should consider a pancreas transplant, especially if she has frequent “insulin reactions” — meaning her blood sugar goes very low without her realizing it.

Media Expert Alert: Altruistic Kidney Donor and Mayo Clinic Expert Available for Interviews Patients waiting for a lifesaving transplant rely heavily on the public to make the choice to become organ donors. The shortage of deceased donor organs has reached a crisis, with almost 120,000 people in need of a lifesaving organ nationwide. Over 3,000 of those are Mayo Clinic patients. However, living donors can help shorten the wait time for many patients waiting for kidney, liver and/or bone marrow transplants. Mayo Clinic pediatrician Phil Fischer, M.D., decided to become a living donor and give a kidney anonymously. To hear Dr. Fisher explain how a patient in need of a kidney transplant touched his heart and inspired him to explore altruistic organ donation, play the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNJz-T5R9FA Dr. Fischer is available to talk to the media about his personal experience. Surgeon Mikel Prieto, M.D.,with the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center, is also available to discuss living-donor kidney donation and transplantation. Click here for news release.  Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Prieto are available in the downloads.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Patients waiting for a lifesaving transplant rely heavily on the public to make the choice to be organ donors. The shortage of deceased donor organs has reached a crisis, with almost 120,000 people in need of a lifesaving organ nationwide. Over 3,000 of those are Mayo Clinic patients. For kidney, liver and bone marrow transplant, living donors can help shorten the wait time for many patients. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Videos of Dr. Phil Fischer, recent kidney donor; and Dr. Mikel Prieto, kidney transplant surgeon, are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. According to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), in the United States in 2012, there were 5,617 kidney transplants from living donors; 161 of those were from anonymous donors. In 1992, there were 2,534 kidney transplants from living donors; and none of those were from anonymous donors. Despite the increase in living donor transplants, however, there are now twice as many people being added to the waiting list each year, compared to the waiting list 20 years ago.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program of Mayo Clinic, Nemours Children's Clinic, Jacksonville, and Wolfson Children's Hospital has been awarded a three-year accreditation renewal by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The foundation awarded the accreditation renewal after thorough site visits at all collection, transplantation and laboratory facilities at the three locations. "We are pleased that Mayo Clinic, Nemours Children's Clinic and Wolfson Children's Hospital have met the requirements of the Foundation and have been granted accreditation for their joint Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program," said Phyllis Warkentin, M.D., FACT medical director. "The teamwork and cooperation between all three organizations in the program has never been better," said Blood and Marrow Transplant Program Director Michael Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Nemours Children's Clinic, Jacksonville. "FACT accreditation is a promise to our patients that we are adhering to and meeting the highest standards in the field. The hematology/oncology physicians, nurses, laboratory and support staff of Nemours, Wolfson Children's and Mayo Clinic work very hard to achieve maintain these standards." The joint program was created in 2001 to allow for greater collaboration in physician and staff expertise, research and clinical protocols. Wolfson Children's Hospital and Nemours Children's Clinic, Jacksonville, will celebrate their Blood and Marrow Transplant Program's 20th anniversary next year. Many patient referrals to the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program come from physicians in Jacksonville, across Florida and south Georgia, across the United States and internationally. Since it was established, the combined program has transplanted patients with a variety of illnesses including leukemia, neuroblastoma, sickle cell disease, bone marrow disorders, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, brain tumors, Ewing's sarcoma, and amyloidosis. Stem cell sources include the patient, immediate family members, volunteer unrelated adult marrow donors or donated umbilical cord blood donor units. More than 970 transplants have been completed during this time. The program shares a single cryopreservation laboratory (where hematopoietic stem cells are frozen and processed) at Mayo Clinic. Mayo maintains the program's adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit, and Wolfson Children's Hospital maintains Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant beds on the Hematology/Oncology Unit in the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Tower. The joint program shares information systems, quality and other clinical and administrative staff. "We are excited to receive this accreditation. It is a welcome recognition and 'badge of honor' for our program. It also informs and assures our patients, referring physicians and insurance companies of the highest standards of patient care and laboratory practices in our program," said Vivek Roy, M.D., hematologist/oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida and medical director of the adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program.

The Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program of Mayo Clinic; Nemours Children’s Clinic, Jacksonville; and Wolfson Children’s Hospital has been awarded a three-year accreditation renewal by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The foundation awarded the accreditation renewal after thorough site visits at all collection, transplantation and laboratory facilities at the three locations. The joint program was created in 2001 to allow for greater collaboration in physician and staff expertise, research and clinical protocols.  Since it was established, the combined program has transplanted patients with a variety of illnesses including leukemia, neuroblastoma, sickle cell disease, bone marrow disorders, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, brain tumors, Ewing’s sarcoma and amyloidosis. “We are excited to receive this accreditation. It is a welcome recognition and ‘badge of honor’ for our program. It also informs and assures our patients, referring physicians and insurance companies of the highest standards of patient care and laboratory practices in our program,” said Vivek Roy, M.D., hematologist/oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida and medical director of the adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. Click here to read the entire news release. To hear more from Dr. Roy, click on the video below.  Journalists, this video is also available in the downloads below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrBkkdDEdw

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) has reached an epidemic state and is the most common infectious cause of diarrhea in hospitals. Health care providers are seeing increased severity and recurrence rates of the infection. As a result, new treatments are being tested. Mayo Clinic experts are at the forefront of these tests. In June, Mayo Clinic opened a C. Difficile Clinic to provide these treatments to patients. "New treatment options are now available and we believe that a clinic dedicated to C. difficile will help improve patient care and outcomes," says Sahil Khanna, M.B.B.S., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist. One new treatment available is fecal transplant. Also known as stool transplant, the procedure restores healthy intestinal bacteria by placing donor stool in the colon. Additionally, there is ongoing research on

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A simple treatment that involves transplanting healthy feces into a patient suffering from a debilitating and sometimes deadly infection of the colon called Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, is continuing to show significant promise. Called a fecal transplant, the stool of a healthy patient is directly transplanted into the colon of a C. diff patient to replenish the normal bacteria in the colon. Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona reported their findings in the August 2013 edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Read news release. Journalists: Sound bites with gastroenterologist John DiBaise, M.D., and patient Diane Seegers are available in the downloads.  http://youtu.be/ub0zFn-iVBU

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – A simple treatment that involves transplanting healthy feces into a patient suffering from a debilitating and sometimes deadly infection of the colon ...