Fort Myers hospital hopes to increase kidney donors through less-invasive procedure
Naples News | Liz Freeman
PHOTO BY COREY PERRINE, NAPLES DAILY NEWS
Corey Perrine/Staff James Hamm, left, and son, Robert Hamm are seen in portrait Thursday, Jan. 17, 2012 at Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, Fla. The two became the first donor to have his kidney removed by laparoscopic surgery, by an incision in his abdomen to remove the organ. The donor's hospital stay is reduced to three days and most donors can get back to normal activity within two weeks. Conventional surgery involves a long incision and the partial removal of a rib and requires a five-day stay and two months of home recovery. Father and son had the surgery on Dec. 20 and are doing well.
FORT MYERS â€" As Naples resident James Hamm recovers from a kidney transplant at Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, he can chuckle when his kidney donor and son, Robert, teases about taking the kidney back.
"We are a very close family," Hamm, 81, said. "I think he did a wonderful thing. He is my hero."
But it is no laughing matter that kidney donors are in short supply, with 95,000 people on a waiting list nationally for a kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. The kidney is the organ most in demand because of the prevalence of end-stage renal failure, said Anne Paschke, a spokeswoman for the Richmond, Va.,-based organization.
That's one reason why Gulf Coast's kidney transplant program now offers a minimally invasive procedure for living donors in hopes of spurring more people to consider it, said Dr. Barry Blitz, the surgeon who performs the laparoscopic surgery at Gulf Coast.
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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
PHOTO BY COREY PERRINE, NAPLES DAILY NEWS
Corey Perrine/Staff James Hamm, left, and son, Robert Hamm are seen in portrait Thursday, Jan. 17, 2012 at Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, Fla. The two became the first donor to have his kidney removed by laparoscopic surgery, by an incision in his abdomen to remove the organ. The donor's hospital stay is reduced to three days and most donors can get back to normal activity within two weeks. Conventional surgery involves a long incision and the partial removal of a rib and requires a five-day stay and two months of home recovery. Father and son had the surgery on Dec. 20 and are doing well.
FORT MYERS â€" As Naples resident James Hamm recovers from a kidney transplant at Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, he can chuckle when his kidney donor and son, Robert, teases about taking the kidney back.
"We are a very close family," Hamm, 81, said. "I think he did a wonderful thing. He is my hero."
But it is no laughing matter that kidney donors are in short supply, with 95,000 people on a waiting list nationally for a kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. The kidney is the organ most in demand because of the prevalence of end-stage renal failure, said Anne Paschke, a spokeswoman for the Richmond, Va.,-based organization.
That's one reason why Gulf Coast's kidney transplant program now offers a minimally invasive procedure for living donors in hopes of spurring more people to consider it, said Dr. Barry Blitz, the surgeon who performs the laparoscopic surgery at Gulf Coast.
Continue reading
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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