Why I’m doing one of the riskiest surgeries in medicine

If the act of organ donation is among humanity’s greatest gifts, what can be said of living donors who undergo surgery to extend and improve the life of another? It’s truly a courageous and inspiring sacrifice. I was honored recently to be able to perform my first living-donor liver transplant. Jason Clark, 28, donated about 60 percent of his liver to his father, Lynn, 57, who had been sick for many years after contracting Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion following a car accident in 1980. Lynn was in end-stage liver failure and yet was nowhere near the top of the waitlist. The people closest to Lynn watched helplessly as he deteriorated to the point where he was too weak to walk. I began performing living-donor liver transplants to empower families like the Clarks. There’s got to be an option for patients, languishing on the waitlist, to receive life-saving organs. There are currently about 17,000 adults and children in the U.S. waiting for donated livers to become available, and each year, 1,500 people die waiting. Despite the shortage, which is often described accurately as a crisis, living-donor transplants remain rare. In 2014, just 4.1 percent of the 6,142 liver transplants involved living donors. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Surgery Source Type: blogs