Donation_For_Others

Pittsburgh Post Gazette | David Templeton Photo: Donor organs came from the late Kevin Hager, 31, of Harrison City, front center. He is surrounded, from left, by his stepfather George Ord, mother Denise Ord, brother Rocky Ord, Rocky's wife Kim Ord, and his sister, Jamie Zierski. For this 57-year-old, the past year has featured major surgery, recuperation, health challenges, medical mysteries, weird drugs and hand washing -- lots of hand washing. Still, it's been one of the best of my good life. Free at last from 45 years of the tyrannical type 1 diabetes and 25 years of kidney-disease terrorism. Energy and outlook restored. Interest in hobbies and projects renewed. Dreams once melting away are intact and upgraded to goals. It all began Oct. 25, 2011, when I received a kidney and pancreas transplant at UPMC's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute after spending 23 months on the waiting list. My diabetes, diagnosed Nov. 1, 1966, led to kidney disease in the mid-1980s. Th...

PR Newswire Organ procurement organization celebrated by Colorado Healthcare Communicators with awards for Community Relations, Writing, Large Event DENVER, Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Donor Alliance , the federally-designated, non-profit organ procurement organization and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and most of Wyoming today announced its receipt of three Gold Leaf Awards from the Colorado Healthcare Communicators (CHC). The annual awards program recognizes excellence in healthcare communication by local organizations and professionals. Donor Alliance received three honors from the 2012 CHC Gold Leaf Awards: A Gold Leaf Award in the Ongoing Community Relations category for the Transplantation Science initiative. Donor Alliance offers the free program for seventh through 12th grade students in Colorado and Wyoming as a community service teaching young people about the science behind organ, eye and tissue donation and transplanta...

KO MO | Rose Egge Photo: Evelyn will be wearing a different mask this Halloween as she receives a donated kidney from her dad.    Evelyn Sherman is going to be 3 years old on Nov. 10. In many ways, she’s just like other kids her age. Evelyn loves chicken noodle soup and bedtime stories. Her accomplishments include flying extra high on her local swing set and building sand castles. Evelyn’s best friends are Bevelyn Bunny, Cousin Bear, and her two sisters. But Evelyn also is unlike most other kids â€" she has kidney disease. This week, on Halloween day, she will receive her first donated kidney from her dad. And while the family is spending most of their days in the hospital caring for their daughter, they are also raising money for other transplant patients in a special event they call “Trick or Treat for Transplant.” As a baby, Evelyn was diagnosed with “failure to thrive.” By the time she was 1 year old, she was diagnosed with kidney disease. Parents Keith and Jul...

Kelvin Smith Kelvin brings that old saying to light "many irons in the fire". He's an author, inspirational speaker, business owner, and a personal manager of NFL athletes. Although a fresh face to the literary game, he is already in high demand to inspire many people of diverse groups. His life has been an expedition bringing him from a rough and tumble childhood, to a "made for movies" type of adult. His brand new book The Unlikely Candidate â€" An Amazing Journey Of A Heart Transplant Patient is right on cue with the title. Always the athlete, he prided himself on continuously staying active and fit, but at age 37 an obstacle came his way. Digging deep into his faith, as well as modern technology, Kelvin received the ultimate gift from an angel, a new heart. " I give praise and thanks to my donor and his family to making the tremendous decision at such a difficult time, which saved my life." Now as a way to give back, Kelvin volunteers his time...

Sydney Morning Herald Photo: Setback ... Tianna is told the bad news that the donor organs are not viable, in a devastating setback before her successful transplant. Photo: Janie Barrett After months of treatment and a heart and double-lung transplant, Tianna Formosa was hopeful of enjoying a bit of normality this weekend. ''I am looking forward to going out for the first time this weekend to my friend Cameron's birthday, and seeing a lot of my friends for the first time since my transplant,'' the 18-year-old told The Sun-Herald on Thursday. ''I'm finally home now with my mum, dad and baby brother. My hopes are long-lasting health and finally being able to be a normal teenager and do everything my friends do.'' Tianna is exhausted, sore and severely underweight after more than a month in intensive care. She is anxious, too, because there have been several speedbumps on the road to recovery. The most serious setback came weeks before her successfu...

Space Coast Daily 2012 CENTRAL FLORIDA HUMANITARIAN Provides Awareness, Funding For Organ Donation The term “Tiger Team,” which originated in the space industry, refers to a group of individuals united in solving a serious problem. Health First’s Tiger Team, formed in 1990, is fiercely interested in educating the public about the importance of organ and tissue donation. The group was created after nurses Mary Gainey of Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital and Judi Cavazos of Health First Holmes Regional Medical Center heard of the concept during a conference of the International Association for Nurses Endorsing Transplantation. Over the ensuing years, the Tiger Team has raised awareness of the need for organ transplants through venues that have ranged from health fairs and bone marrow drives to surf tournaments and a children’s calendar contest. The Health First Tiger Team has also provided $100,000 in grants to families who have experienced or are awaiting organ donations for ...

LifeLine of Ohio Lifeline of Ohio hosted its 2nd annual Organ and Tissue Donation Collaborative at the Quest Center in Columbus Tuesday, October 23. The hospital relations team worked very hard to plan an interesting and educational day for the hospital partners. We were so pleased to have great weather and more than 150 people attend. Helen Bottenfield, executive director of the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance, moderated the day, and shared her enthusiasm for saving lives through organ donation in a way that encouraged others to do their best in this effort. We laughed, we cried and we all learned more of what we can do to save lives. The speakers were awesome and so inspiring! Lifeline of Ohio’s staff discussed how the Ohio Donor Registry is making a difference, explained the step-by-step process of donation after circulatory death, and led breakout sessions on tissue donation and donor management in the intensive care unit. Dr. William Carroll, MD, of Grant Medical Cen...

Farmingdale Observer | Christy Hinko On Tuesday, Oct. 16 James Conte, Republican assemblyman of the 10th district in Huntington lost his battle with T-cell lymphoma cancer. He was diagnosed last spring, but in May 2012 Conte had learned that the cancer had spread. He began receiving chemotherapy treatment at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Just three months ago, Conte formally announced that he would not seek re-election as assemblyman “due to his ongoing battle with cancer and his desire to focus all of his energy on recovering and spend more time with his family and friends.” Conte had dedicated 24 years to public service. He was first elected to the Assembly during a special election in March 1988. “The passing of Assemblyman James Conte this morning is a tremendous loss for all of those who were fortunate to know him and for the entire 10th Assembly District that he represented with great pride and distinction for over 24 faithful years,” said Chad Lupinacci, the Republican, Conservati...

NJ Today Photo: Jackie Lue Raia of Mahwah looks at some of the new hand-made patches that were added to NJ Sharing Network’s “Quilts of Love” that was on display at a memorial ceremony in Woodbridge to honor organ and tissue donors. Jackie’s mother, Ena Lue, was able to donate her liver and both kidneys after she was killed in a car accident in 2010. Jackie later pinned a patch she made to honor her mother’s memory to the quilt. (Photo courtesy of NJ Sharing Network) WOODBRIDGE â€" Ezequiel Garcia of Newark will never forget that fateful phone call on Sept. 11, 2011. He was vacationing in the beautiful mountains of Puerto Rico, his native homeland. His wife, Iris, was the caller. The words out of her mouth were not to be believed. Their middle child, Reinaldo, had been involved in a motorcycle accident and was taken to Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, where he later died from injuries suffered. “I felt like my world ended. It was something so big it was incomp...

OneLegacy | Glenn Matsuki Photo Credits:  Luis Ramirez, OneLegacy | Glenn Matsuki, OneLegacy, O&T Blog 850 hospital staff assembled at the Fairplex Conference Center in Pomona to learn about optimal best practices and trends in the donation and transplantation. Billed as the largest collaborative conference in the nation, we were led by national faculty members Thomas A. Nakagawa, MD, FAAP, FCCM, Professor, Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, Director, Pediatric Critical Care, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Nader Habashi, MD, Medical Director for Multi-trauma Critical Care Unit, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma, Center, University of Maryland Medical School of Medicine.   Topics covered included donation after circulatory death (DCD); the impact of administrative consent policies; the role of Palliative Care, Social Work and Spiritual leaders; hospital administrative consent policies and digital integration between OPO and Hospital EMR systems. Reg Green, aut...

PR Newswire Organ procurement organization honored by Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence DENVER, Oct. 26, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Donor Alliance, the federally-designated, non-profit organ procurement organization and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and most of Wyoming, today announced its receipt of the Foothills Award from Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx), a nonprofit helping organizations improve performance and achieve results. RMPEx is a program dedicated to enabling organizations to evolve and succeed through the effective application of Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Any organization or individual seriously committed to reaping the many benefits of systematic performance improvement can benefit from participating in the RMPEx community. Each year, RMPEx formally recognizes role-model applicants for performance excellence achievements with three levels of awards. This year Donor Alliance was select...

Highland Community News Photo: Tory Howe-Lynch and his mother, Lesley Howe. Lesley will attend ARMC’s Tree of Life Ceremony November 1 and will be honored along with 74 other families whose loved ones made the decision to give the gift of life. Names of former ARMC patients who agreed to be donors will be placed on a ‘Tree of Life’ Tory Howe-Lynch was unlike many teenagers in that he held his mom close, instead of pushing her away. “He had no shame about loving me,” said Tory’s mother, San Bernardino resident Lesley Howe. “Every time he saw me, he hugged me and told me he loved me.” Tory, who died at age 15 in 2002 when he was shot leaving church, had similar feelings about others. “He showed his love to everyone he cared about,” his mother said. When Lesley learned that her son had suffered a life-threatening injury and that organ donation was a possibility, she knew Tory’s wishes. “Because of who he was, I knew without a doubt that donation is something he wou...

OneLegacy | Sonia Navarro “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and other Latin-American countries. On November 2, 2012 the La Fonda Día de los Muertos Red Carpet Gala will feature a silent auction benefiting the OneLegacy Foundation. Friday, November 2nd, 5pm â€" 10pm Silent Auction proceeds will benefit the OneLegacy Foundation La Fonda Día de los Muertos Red Carpet Gala 2501 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA  90057 Cost: $55 per person *The organizers of the gala have a connection with organ donation.  The organizer is a donor wife and the MC for the evening recently lost someone on the waiting list.     

Organ and Tissue Donation Blog Register as an Organ, Eye and Tissue Donor Give Someone Hope this National Donor Sabbath National Donor Sabbath, observed Nov. 9-11 this year, is an annual faith-based celebration of the lifesaving gift of organ, eye and tissue donation.  Because faith plays a significant role in the decision to register as a donor, every year during this special time, donation and transplant organizations work closely with communities of faith to bring the message of donation to congregations. All major religions support organ, eye and tissue donation, as a final act of kindness and generosity. Regardless of their specific religion, Californians are encouraged to register as donors by visiting www.donatelifecalifornia.org. In other states,   www.donatelife.net .   “While religions differ, one of the common points is positive, inspiring messaging. Messaging that provides hope,” “By registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, you can provide hope...

OneLegacy | Sonia Navarro “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and other Latin-American countries. The day focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember love ones who have passed.  This celebration has grown in recent years in Southern California and it’s a perfect platform for our mission as we remember and honor our donors and inspire our comunidad .  Sunday, October 28th, 11am â€" 3pm Donate Life alter in memory of our donors Rose Hills Día de los Muertos Festival 3888 Workman Mill Road {Gate 1} Whittier, CA 90601 Free admission

NBC News NEW YORK, NY â€" Kadmon Corporation, LLC, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1b/2a study of KD020, a reversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting EGFR, HER2, VEGFR 2/3 and Src, in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD). PKD is a condition with no known treatments and is associated with a number of co-morbidities as well as early mortality. Affecting more than 600,000 Americans(1) and over 12.5 million people worldwide,(2,3) it is the single largest autosomal disorder with an incidence similar to that of cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, Down syndrome and sickle cell anemia combined. The disease is characterized by the formation of cysts in the kidneys and other organs, causing the kidneys to become enlarged and, in half of affected individuals, leading to kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant.(4) In fully developed autosomal dominant PKD, a cyst-filled kidney can weigh as much as 20 to 30 pounds. High bl...

The Charleston Gazette | McKenzie Mays Photo: Taitlyn Hughes (right) and her sister attend a WVU game. Hughes, of Martinsburg, died from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 12 last November. An avid football fan and registered organ donor, Hughes' memory is living on through Nefeterius McPherson of Killeen, Texas. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Nefeterius McPherson is a fifth-generation Texan, but she wore gold and blue at West Virginia University's game against the University of Texas in Austin last weekend. The shirt belonged to Taitlyn Hughes, 12, of Martinsburg, who died of a sudden brain hemorrhage last November. "I always knew I was supposed to share our story," said McPherson, a 38-year-old lawyer from Killeen, Texas. "I'm getting a second chance at life because of this beautiful spirit that had to go." McPherson was diagnosed with Secondary Schlerosing Cholangitis, a rare bile duct and liver disease, in her first year of law school at Southern Methodist Uni...

Santa Fe New Mexican | Julie Ann Grimm Photo: Julie Chambers, 43, plays with her children, 19-month-old Teo Chambers Arevalo and 11-year-old Caitlin Skibyak, at home Wednesday. Chambers says she wants to be a role model for her children and to teach them the value of life. - Jane Phillips/The New Mexican People do it all the time for their siblings, their spouses and their best friends. To donate your kidney to a complete stranger is a much rarer story. For Julie Chambers, the decision to give up a vital organ for a woman she’d never met was a choice that came naturally, she said. This past April, Chambers scanned the page of a church newsletter that a friend had left in her office at the state Environment Department. She was thinking of visiting The United Church of Santa Fe and wanted to learn a little more about it. “Prayers of hope and healing” was the title of a long list of people in need. A father had died, a knee surgery had taken place and someone had suffered a stro...

The Standard - Examiner | Alex McDonald Editor, This Halloween, if you haven’t said "yes" to organ donation, be afraid, very afraid. Many of us think about really scary things at Halloween like mummies, witches, and zombies. But what could be more frightening than a group of 30 mothers prepared to fight the myths and misconceptions about donation. Their protective instincts drive them to help those waiting for a life-saving transplant. This fall, Intermountain Donor Services is partnering with a group of moms whose children have either had a transplant or are waiting for lifesaving transplants. They are The M.O.D. Squad (Mothers for Organ Donation), and they are out to bust myths about organ donation and break a few heads of those who won’t listen to reason. If you think you can’t be a donor because you have diabetes, they will set you straight, because, yes, you can still be an organ donor. Don’t exclude yourself from organ donation because you couldn’t donate bloo...

The Los Angeles Times | Corina Knoll David Trujillo, 29, has gotten new leases on life from family members and a stranger. With the latest transplant, he is determined to make the most of the lease. David Trujillo shows a self-portrait. Trujillo, 29, was diagnosed after birth with renal dysplasia â€" his kidneys were too small. “David’s unlucky,” his surgeon said. “But he’s also lucky,” referring to his four transplants. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / September 7, 2012) David Trujillo's torso is a web of scars. Shunts in his arms, hoses in his stomach, garish gashes left from biopsies and scalpel incisions. In the summer when he goes shirtless, people often stare. Sometimes, to lighten the mood, he'll say he was bitten by a shark. In reality, his body tells the tale of multiple bouts of kidney failure. David recently received yet another transplant. No. 4. He is 29 years old. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, only about 150 people since 1988...

Gillette News Record | Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. â€" A reunion of two friends recently brought new meaning to the notion of giving and receiving. Ben Ekrem needed a kidney. Mary Crandall gave him one. They met in the 1990s, when Ekrem and Crandall’s husband, Doug, worked together in the insurance business in Sioux Falls. They and their spouses met again Tuesday at Avera McKennan Hospital to take part in a medical oxymoron â€" a routine life-saving procedure. Wednesday morning, Crandall was asleep on an operating table, where surgeons removed one of her kidneys. They stored it in a bowl of crushed ice and walked it next door to another operating room, where Ekrem waited to receive it. Ekrem and Crandall thus took their place in medical history. They were transplant number 995 at Avera McKennan. Doctors there expect to reach 1,000 in a few weeks. The milestone might rate someday as a footnote to the two friends’ experience. But to Ekrem, age 51 and a diabetic for ...

Tifton Gazette Anthony Barron TIFTON â€" A local man who needs a kidney and pancreas transplant is asking for the community’s help. Tifton native Anthony Barron, 55, has been on dialysis for a little over a year now. He said he does the peritoneal dialysis, which is a home dialysis choice for people with chronic kidney disease. He stated that every night before he goes to bed, he hooks up to a machine to clean out his system. It takes six cycles to go through three bags of fluids. The cycling process takes eight and a half to nine hours to complete. “I’ve gotten use to it,” Barron said. He takes 25 pills a day plus five shots of insulin after his pancreas stopped producing it about 20 years ago. Also, he has other health issues. Since he was 12 years old, Barron has been taking medicine for high blood pressure, and then things got progressively worse with his kidneys and pancreas over the following years with them completely giving out in 2011. Read more

Irish Times | Brian OConnell Photo: Richard and Anna Costello The news this week that Joe Brolly’s donation of a kidney had failed drew attention to amazing acts of generosity that take place regularly â€" and to the fact that most transplants are very successful THE ISSUE OF live organ donation came to the fore this week through an act of selflessness between two friends. When the GAA pundit and former Derry footballer Joe Brolly heard that the only possibility for a kidney transplant for a fellow under-10s coach, Shane Finnegan, was through a live organ donor, he presented himself as a candidate. Finnegan had been waiting for a transplant for more than six years, and, given the waiting lists and the availability of organ donors, his chances were slim. So, given that most people can function perfectly well with one kidney, Brolly went through detailed screening that determined his organ would be a suitable match for Finnegan. Unfortunately, although the transplanted organ funct...

Progress-Index | Patrick Kane Photo: Patrick Kane/Progress-Index Photo Willie Cottle, left, is pictured in the warehouse of Mark Bric Display Corp. in Prince George County with company president Larry Ragland yesterday. Cottle had a liver transplant in April, and was welcomed back to his job as warehouse supervisor with a luncheon. PRINCE GEORGE - Upon his first breath out of anesthesia, Willie Cottle could tell the difference. The liver of a late Virginia Beach woman was already restoring his body, about 24 hours after doctors at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center had undertaken a 14-hour organ transplant. "Instantly, I was able to feel the difference," Cottle said. "My skin, everything, it began to bounce back." Bounce back, he did. Cottle, who lives in Hopewell, had come out from anesthesia in a day rather than the typical three. His hospital stay was a week, instead of the typical month. Five months, one week and two days after he left work at Mark ...

North Jersey| Lindy Washburn CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Bill Reitsma of the New Jersey Sharing Network, which helps arrange organ transplants, next to a quilt showing donors' faces. He has advocated for organ donation for more than three decades. Bill Reitsma sat eye-to-eye with a woman whose son was in a hospital intensive care unit. Guilt, raw and ugly, ate at her. Her son, who was epileptic, had apparently suffered a seizure before falling into the family pool. He had been resuscitated by the first aid squad, but now doctors said he was brain dead. Reitsma had come to the ICU with an important question: Would the boy's mother consent to donating his organs? Would she allow surgeons to remove her son's heart, liver and kidneys to be transplanted in others? She'd refused earlier when an ICU doctor had asked, he knew. Now she repeatedly told Reitsma, "I'm an awful mother." But, she added, "I know there's another mother out there who wants ...