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Winter Storm Hits Maryland, Part 3
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Md. Doctors Set Kidney Transplant Record
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CBS
A first of its kind procedure in Baltimore increases the donor pool for people in need of a kidney transplant. Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn says the wait for a kidney is over for eight very fortunate people.
Maryland doctors have performed a similar procedure but never with this many people.
Johns Hopkins Vice President Pamela Paulk originally had hoped to donate a kidney to a coworker. Her organ ended up going farther than she ever imagined.
"My kidney lives and pees in St. Louis right now," she said.
Eight people who needed a kidney now have one, thanks to a never-performed 16-person, four-hospital kidney swap.
"We think in the future, this is the paradigm that's going to be used," said Dr. Robert Montgomery.
Doctors from Johns Hopkins first flew a kidney to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Another went to Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and a third (Pamela's kidney) went to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. In exchange, all three hospitals sent a kidney back to Baltimore. Two other organs were donated and transplanted at Hopkins, including the kidney that now lives inside Robert Brinkmann.
"It's hard to describe, but it truly is a marvelous thing," Brinkmann said.
The complicated procedure requires each person who needs a kidney to provide a donor. Newlyweds Lisa and Robert Brinkmann were not a match, so she gave her kidney to a man in Detroit.
"I've not met him or anything but evidently the person is doing great," she said.
"I talked to my recipient this morning and she's doing fantastic so it's like I hit the Maryland jackpot. The lottery has come my way," Paulk said.
Earlier this year, Hopkins doctors performed a six-kidney domino transplant that was done on the same day. This time, it took several days.
"To do a six way swap all in one day anywhere except a couple of places in the country is just not logistically possible," Montgomery said.
Brinkmann was on dialysis for six months before getting his kidney.
"Staples in my stomach, major surgery and I immediately felt better than I had in two years," he said.
Dr. Montgomery, who led the procedure, says paired kidney donation can lead to an additional 1,500 transplants per year.
About 84,000 people in the US are waiting for a kidney but only about 6,000 people are expected to donate an organ this year.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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