In other words, it's the biggest no brain-er in the history of earth! Although lots of careful consideration and preparation went into the recent 8 way Kidney Exchange. The Domino's were aligned, huh?
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The logistics are mind-boggling: an eight-way, multi-hospital, domino kidney transplant involving six men and 10 women in four states. The surgeries were successfully completed, and the patients, including a Rockville couple and a Fredericksburg man, are recovering and in good condition.
"We're both in pretty good shape," lawyer Bob Brinkmann said yesterday. Brinkmann, 58, of Rockville, received a kidney from donor Theresa Watson, 53, during surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on June 16."We haven't gone back to work yet, but we're up and about."
Brinkmann's wife, Lisa, also 58, donated her kidney to a man she'd never met: Daniel Bruce, 57, whose surgery was done in Detroit. Bruce's wife, Sally, 47, in turn donated a kidney to Kaaren Johanson, 46, who also received her transplant at Hopkins.
The first-of-its-kind surgery -- believed to be the largest chain of donations in history -- involved hospitals in four cities: Nine of the surgeries took place at Johns Hopkins; other surgeries took place at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
Doctors transplanted the eight kidneys over three weeks.
"We finally beat the 'Grey's Anatomy' record for domino transplants," Robert Montgomery, chief transplant surgeon at Hopkins, joked at a news conference hours after the last surgery was completed Monday night. "We hope this creates a movement that encourages other transplant centers to adopt the model we used."
Multiple kidney transplants occur when several people who need transplants have friends or relatives who are willing to donate organs but aren't compatible. A chain of surgeries is arranged in which each donor is matched with a transplant candidate they don't know but who is compatible with the kidney being donated. Chain transplants typically also involve an altruistic donor, who is willing to donate a kidney to anyone and is located through a database.
This particular series of transplants was set in motion by Thomas Koontz, a 54-year-old Fredericksburg man who called Johns Hopkins and offered to donate his kidney after a woman in his church parish he wanted to help proved incompatible.
The transplant was an early gift to the Brinkmanns, who will celebrate their first wedding anniversary this month.
Bob Brinkmann's kidneys began to fail about a year before he and Lisa were married, and his health continued to worsen after their wedding. He was put on dialysis a few days after Christmas.
"He didn't have any energy, and he was tired all the time," said Lisa Brinkmann, a project manager at Watson Wyatt.
Lisa Brinkmann was not a match for her husband but said she hoped that by offering to donate her kidney, they might be able to find a donor sooner. The change in her husband's health has been dramatic, she said.
"The first day after surgery, I was the one groaning and moaning in pain," she said. "I felt terrible. I didn't want to eat. He comes hobbling into my room and tells me he had a full breakfast. He was the picture of health."
About 100,000 Americans have donated kidneys since 1988, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing Web site. Still, about 84,000 people in the United States are listed by the organization as needing kidneys.
As part of the complex procedure, Johns Hopkins flew one kidney to Henry Ford, one kidney to INTEGRIS Baptist and one kidney to Barnes-Jewish. In exchange, Henry Ford, INTEGRIS Baptist and Barnes Jewish each flew a kidney to Johns Hopkins.
The 16 surgeries were performed June 15, June 16, June 22 and Monday. The 10 surgeons included four at Johns Hopkins, two at INTEGRIS Baptist, two at Barnes-Jewish and two at Henry Ford.
Such procedures are familiar to Johns Hopkins. Surgeons there performed one of the first such procedures in the United States in 2001, the first triple-swap in 2003, the first double- and triple-domino transplant in 2005, the first five-way domino transplant in 2006 and the first six-way transplant in 2007. Johns Hopkins also performed the first multi-hospital, transcontinental three-way transplant in 2007 and the first multi-hospital, transcontinental six-way transplant this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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