The crash was deep in a forested, isolated area in Florida
A huge number of people are involved in an organ transplant - not just the transplant team in the OR. The night of my brother's transplant, the heart was flown in from another city in Ontario. Take off was delayed by several hours due to a terrible storm that evening. I often think of the staff involved in transporting his organ, essentially risking their lives because they flew in a storm.
Yesterday, a helicopter crashed killing transplant surgeon, Dr. Luis Bonilla, procurement technician, David Hines of the Mayo Clinic, and the pilot. They were enroute to pickup the donor heart in Gainesville, Florida.
The Mayo Clinic is quoted as saying "As we mourn this tragic event, we will remember the selfless and intense dedication they brought to making a difference in the lives of our patients," John Noseworthy, Mayo Clinic president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We recognize the commitment transplant teams make every day in helping patients at Mayo Clinic and beyond. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families."
Last week Michael underwent an angiogram at Toronto General Hospital. Most heart transplant recipients can expect this around the one year mark. He arrived at the hospital at 7 a.m. and was called around 10 a.m. from the procedure. Prior to being called, he was given an IV to run sodium bicarbonate which helps the kidneys as the dye used for the angiogram is very hard on these organs.
The interesting thing about Michael's angiogram is that Dr. Daley went through the wrist! Apparently, that was Dr. Daley's third time going through the wrist vs. other major arteries. The advantage of doing the angiogram through the wrist is to allow the patient mobility after the procedure. He did have some bruising at the wrist, which is to be expected.
Michael was given a pain killer/sedative prior to the procedure. Although uncomfortable, he says a biopsy is similar yet different to the angiogram. With the biopsy, the freezing is uncomfortable and the needle goes in the neck. Another short needle is used to freeze the surface and a second needle is used to freeze deeper tissue. There is a lot of pressure going into the artery - as if a size two catheter is entering a size one artery where as with the angiogram, Once the catheter got past the elbow, he says he could not longer feel it inside the artery. Yikes!
The angiogram was approximately 45-60 minutes in length. A machine was used to highlight the dye & tools inside the body. A large x-ray machine was above Michael's head. It was mobile x-ray machine used in order to see different parts of the patient's body. Upon completion, a pressure bandage is put on to keep the artery from bleeding.
After the procedure, Michael went to the sixth floor to recuperate [day surgery area] where he slept for a good chunk of the afternoon and eventually left the hospital around 5:30. He kept the pressure bandage on that night. Michael says his wrist looked like it has a shaving nick now where the entrance site was. There is also bruising halfway up the forearm where the catheter ran up the artery.
All in all, he says it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be!
Heartlinks is the heart transplant support group of Toronto General Hospital. They have several initiatives. Two annual initiatives are the Craft & Bake Sale in November & The Christmas Party in December. It's great to opportunity for fellow heart transplants & their family members to converse, get to know each other & their transplant journeys [outside of biopsy!]. Transplant staff from TGH generously share their time & drop by to see their patients in a non-medical setting. As usual, it was a great event! Thanks to Susan & Eddie for all their hard work!
My Dad, heart transplant recipient of fourteen years
A very festive Andrea & I. Andrea is approaching her one year transplanniversary just before Christmas
Eddie, heart transplant recipient, & his wife Nancy. Eddie is a driving force behind Heartlinks.
This is a very interesting story about a man being removed from the liver transplant list in the United States. The patient had been prescribed medical marijuana while battling liver cancer. The marijuana was prescribed by his physician. As his health declined, he was put on the liver transplant list. He was soon delisted because he tested positive for marijuana. It would seem that if the marijuana was part of his treatment, he should still be eligible for the transplant. Find the full article by clicking on the link at the end of the text.
Press release from Americans for Safe Access
Los Angeles, CA -- Sixty-three year-old medical marijuana patient Norman B. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009 and sought treatment from the internationally lauded Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Smith's oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his medical marijuana use as a means to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery. In September 2010, Smith became eligible for a liver transplant, but after testing positive for marijuana in February he was removed from the transplant list. Smith's cancer was in remission until just recently, but now he is scheduled to undergo radiation treatments in the next few days.
Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued a letter today urging the Cedars-Sinai Transplant Department to promptly re-list Smith for a liver transplant. The letter also urges Cedars-Sinai to change its transplant eligibility policy. "Denying necessary transplants to medical marijuana patients is the worst kind of discrimination," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who also authored the letter to Cedars-Sinai. "Cedars-Sinai would not be breaking any laws, federal or otherwise, by granting Norman Smith a liver transplant, and it's certainly the ethical thing to do."
Posted: 11/14/2011 11:57 AM | Last Modified: 11/15/2011 2:26 AM
Kyle Fundytus, 16, had his organs donated after a "freak" hockey accident
EDMONTON - The family of a young Edmonton hockey player who died after being hit in the neck with a puck has donated the youth's organs for transplant.
Kyle Fundytus, 16, was remembered Monday by family, team and classmates as a friendly go-getter on and off the ice who never flinched from using his body to block shots for his Midget AA team.
Hockey Edmonton officials say he was blocking a shot during a game Saturday night when he was struck, dying later in hospital of his injuries in what was being called a freak accident.
Today, my dad went to Toronto General Hospital for an Echo Stress test. He's told me that heart transplant patients who are very stable have the Echo Stress test done instead of biopsies. My dad is considered stable because he's had very little rejection for many years [He's had the donor heart for fourteen years]. A Stress Echo is made up of three parts: A resting Echo study, Stress test, and a repeat Echo while the heart is still beating fast. It is definitely far less invasive & more pleasant than a routine biopsy.
My parents at my brother's one year heart transplant anniversary celebration
Yesterday, my brother & his family threw a party to celebrate the one year anniversary of his heart transplant [otherwise known as his one year birthday]. They celebrated along side of friends & family who supported them through the past two challenging years by making hospital visits, providing emotional support, offering childcare and or to lend an ear. It was a very celebratory & positive evening.
Mark, Michael & Graham
Folks were sent home with "loot bags" containing heart shaped cookies, a green ribbon to honour organ donation, a Trillium Gift of Life pamphlet & information on beadonor.ca . It was a very nice touch!
My childhood crush, Brent, & I
Our dad's brother, Dennis with his wife, Helen, and our cousin, Kathleen
Today Michael's heart transplant journey is one year young! Michael was taken to the operating room just after midnight in the early hours of October 27th, 2010. The donor heart arrived around 1 a.m. with the surgery wrapping up around 6:15 a.m. It's been a year of ups and a year of downs, full of learning, reflecting, loving, and resilience... and also an additional year of Michael continuing to be a father, son, husband, uncle and friend.
This is also a time to reflect on the difficult time the donor family must be having as surely this anniversary does not bring the same joyful feelings. Our entire family is grateful for the priceless [and best] gift given by the donor family. Thank you.
A long-term study unveiled Monday at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver found that heart-transplant survival rates were 86 per cent after one year.
The study, which looked at results since 1984 at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and covered the follow-up on 461 patients, also found that the younger the patient at the time of the transplant, the more successful the outcome.
“Despite being a very involved and complicated program, heart transplant is a very successful form of treatment,” said Dr. Marc Ruel, surgical director of the heart transplant program at the institute.
Without a transplant, he said patients would not have lived one more year. With a transplant, the study revealed the survival rate was 75 per cent at five years, 62 per cent at 10 years, and 36 per cent at 20 years.
“We had a patient who was still followed at 25 years and four months, so that’s the longest survival we’ve had, but many patients are still alive well beyond 20 years, and hopefully we’ll have solutions to keep them alive for a long time,” Dr. Ruel said.
The oldest person receiving a heart transplant in the study period was 74, and the youngest was 18.
Transplants can be done after the age of 65 with good results, but doctors have to carefully make their selections in order to avoid patients with other significant illnesses that would compromise lifespan or quality of life, he said.
Last year, there were 167 heart transplants in Canada, performed in five provinces. At the end of last year, 135 Canadians were on the waiting list for a heart transplant.
Modern heart transplantation became available in 1980, and the study found that survival rates have improved by more than 20 per cent in the years since.
“Eight-year survival since the 2000s is close to 90 per cent – 89.3 per cent to be exact. So this really sets a very high standard for other series to be compared upon,” Dr. Ruel said.
An international registry of heart transplants finds that survival is expected to be about 67 per cent at seven years, so the results in Ottawa compare favourably.
The first human heart transplant was done by Christiaan Barnard in South Africa in December, 1967. The patient lived for 18 days, and died of pneumonia.
The techniques of heart transplantation haven’t changed much since the pioneering days, Dr. Ruel said, but before-and-after care is much improved.
In particular, postoperative care involves immune suppression, prevention of infections and following patients carefully with biopsies, he said.
“I think having a heart transplant program in the hospital is one of the most complicated things that a hospital can get into. Despite this the results are excellent, and it almost looks as if it is routine. Well, in fact, it is very, very far from routine because of the dozens of levels of involvement that are required for successful transplantation.”
He credits donor hospitals, donor procurement and allocation agencies, recipient hospitals, teams of nurses, physiotherapists and transplant cardiologists who keep patients alive by preventing rejection and infection for many years.
The actual surgery normally takes between four and eight hours, Dr. Ruel noted. A donor heart remains viable for only four to six hours, so Ottawa transplant surgeons could probably use a heart retrieved from as far away as about Edmonton, “but certainly Vancouver would be stretching it because of the flight time and the need for sometimes refuelling, and the time to implant the heart, which takes between 70 and 90 minutes on average.”
Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson said heart transplantation is an excellent treatment for the select few who need it – those with severe, end-stage heart failure.
She urged Canadians to sign their organ donor cards.
Here's an update as we approach the one year anniversary of Michael's heart transplant: Michael continues to battle CMV. He is at home on oral medication to fight the virus. He continues to go to Toronto General Hospital to inhale a medication that attempts to prevent pneumonia. This week, he also had a biopsy which came back showing zero rejection. This is incredible considering the low, low doses of anti-rejection drugs he's been on [my dad complains that he takes more meds than my brother!].
Michael modelling the pique line that was used to treat the CMV & caused the staph infection.
The other patients [my parents] are recovering from their car accident in August. As it turns out, my Mom has a fractured foot, fractured sternum, fractured back and several fractured ribs. That explains the constant pain she's been in!
Mom at the hospital visiting Michael days before fracturing this, that & everything else!
I must apologize for being a bit of blogger slacker....
Marc Quinet and Suzanne Camu would like a moment of your time. Their son, Thomas Quinet, 14, is on life support at the Hospital for Sick Children. The Ottawa teenager, who has been in Toronto for 14 months awaiting a second double-lung transplant, was put in an induced coma on Aug. 7 and hooked to a novalung, a ventilator to assist his breathing.
He is now on a North American-wide list for organs. He has scant weeks to live without a transplant.
Our family needs your help. Our only child, Thomas-Paul Quinet (14 years old), has a critical need for new lungs. We have been waiting for almost 14 months for suitable organs to become available. A few days ago, Thomas needed a breathing tube to continue living. He is in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. The doctors who are treating him have told us that, while every person is different, Thomas has a very limited amount of time to live in his current condition.
We are painfully aware of the chronic shortage of organs and tissue. There are many reasons why. One of them is the relatively small number of people who have expressed and registered their desire to donate their organs and tissue before they pass away. Children and adults of virtually any age can be potential donors. Some organs (partial and complete) can be donated while you are still living, including lungs.
Would you consider finding out how you can register your wishes to be a donor in your province or state? Just recently we found out, due to medical advances, that Thomas can now receive a gift of lungs (and life!) from across North America!
Could we ask you to do one more thing? Please speak to one other person about what you’ve just read and then ask if they would do the same. We realize there are so many great causes in our society today. Could you make our cause yours for the next few weeks?
With sincere and heartfelt thanks,
Suzanne Camu and Marc Quinet on behalf of Thomas-Paul Quinet
Patient One
Michael has turned a corner and is beginning to recover from his deadly staph infection. Last Wednesday/Thursday were difficult days as Michael was very, seriously ill. He is still in the hospital. His CMV levels have come down, hence he's going to receive his CMV meds via oral form vs. IV. However, he still needs four more weeks of IV treatment for the staph infection.
Patient #1 improving
Patient Two & Three
On Monday afternoon, my parents were involved in a serious car accident while en route to hospital to visit my brother. They were traveling on the Gardiner Expressway when they were hit on the drivers side by another vehicle which caused them to spin and hit the guard rail. The other driver was charged with careless driving. They were taken by ambulance to the hospital where they were x-rayed and my dad assessed by the transplant team. They are bruised and extremely sore [chest & back - from the seat belt & being tossed about - are among some of the aches and pains being experienced]. Getting up & down and mobility are quite difficult for them at this time. However, given the nature of the accident & state of their car, they are LUCKY to be alive.
Patient 2 & 3 being discharged from the hospital
The drivers side of the vehicle after the crash...
Michael was admitted to Toronto General Hospital for the second time this summer on Wednesday evening. He had was fevered, vomiting & lethargic. He really appeared to be in a bad way. Thursday morning, his temperature had come down from 39/40 to 37.7. However, he was still extremely lethargic. Dr. McCready [an infectious disease doctor from Toronto General Hospital] came to the 10th floor to try to determine the cause of the infection. The lab confirmed her suspicion that he had a staph infection. We all have staph & strep bacteria on our skin. More than likely, the staph bacteria entered his blood via the pique line in his arm that was meant to administer the CMV antibiotics [CMV was the reason for his previous hospital visit a few weeks back].
Michael's cocktail of antibiotics & saline
He is receiving Vancomycin to treat the infection along with two other antibiotics to continue to treat the CMV [one of which is Ciprofloxacin]. He had a chest xray and echo, both of which showed no damage to his heart. Hopefully, with the Vancomycin he'll bounce back & will be feeling more like himself in the next few days.
Numbers....actually Michael's blood pressure is probably higher than mine!
Michael with his daughter, Maddy [photo courtesy of his wife]
Michael & his family were set to go on summer holiday [the holiday they canceled last summer due to his congestive heart failure], when TGH [Toronto General Hospital] called to say he needed to be admitted. Apparently, Michael's routine blood work came back with dangerous levels of CMV which is a virus that affected 20-60% of transplant patients. In fact, our dad had it post-transplant as well. However, he was treated via IV at home. Michael will be in hospital for a week while being treated intravenously.
For the first time since my brother's heart transplant in October, 2010, the three family heart transplant recipients were all together in the same room! We were celebrating my Aunt Catherine's [our Dad's eldest sister & Brian's mother] 92nd birthday. They all looked fantastic!
From left to right: John McBride [14 years], Michael McBride, [8 months] & Brian Conway [8 years]
Aunt Catherine with her granddaughter, Eloise
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Michael's last biopsy was a level A1. This means that there are rejection cells in the heart. The good news is that this is expected now and again. The prendizone was reduced by 2.5 mg for a new dose of 7.5 mg per day [original post-transplant dose was 30 mg per day]. The other meds have remained the same with the addition of alopurinol for gout.
To date, Michael has had two severe gout attacks that have resulted in hospitalization. Each gout visit has meant a direct joint injection of cortizone. The gout is common with the tranplant meds. Next biopsey is in 6 weeks.
Ontario's Trillium Gift of Life network launched their new online Organ & Tissue Donation Registration in Ontario. Hopefully, this will be a more effortless & accessible approach to organ & tissue donation in Ontario! One donor can save up to eight lives and enhance up to seventy-five more. Watch the inspiring video below on how organ donation saves lives...
A Chinese teenager has reportedly sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan ($3171) so he could buy an iPad 2.
The high school student from Anhui Province, Xiao Zhang, confessed to his mother that he was motivated to sell the kidney after seeing an internet ad offering cash to people who were prepared to become organ donors, according to the Global Times. His mother had discovered the iPad 2 and forced him to reveal how he was able to afford the gadget. "I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn't have the money," the boy told Shenzhen TV. He also bought an iPhone and a laptop with the proceeds from the sale, his mother said.
Xiao Zhang, the iPad 2 and his scar.
Chenzhou 198 Hospital in Hunan Province, where the boy reportedly had his surgery, does not have qualifications for kidney transplantation. It has denied any connection with the organ removal however has admitted contracting out its urology department to a private businessman.
The buying and selling of organs is a growing issue in China and the government has so far failed to stamp out the practice. There have been many reports of "transplant tourists" who come from rich countries to buy much-needed organs from poor desperate people. The blackmarket trade is driven by the fact that there are many times more people waiting for organs than there are legitimate donors.
Zheng's mother told Shenzhen TV that she took her son to report the matter to police but the agents who had organised the organ trade were uncontactable. Police are reportedly trying to track down the buyers.
Wednesday, I had the honour of attending the 100th LVAD [Left Ventricle Assist Device] Celebration at Toronto General Hospital. The event featured talks by Dr. Heather Ross & Dr. Vivek Rao, both of whom are part of the heart transplant team at TGH.
In 2001, Dr. Rao [Surgical Director of Cardiac Transplantation at TGH], implanted the first LVAD on patient, Mike Schmidt. The 100th was implanted in February, 2011. Currently, there were two LVAD implants scheduled for this week and one for next. Ontario recently provided funding to cover the implantation of twenty LVADs. Prior to that, the cost was covered by donations.
Current & past LVAD patients & transplant patients with Dr. Rao
The LVAD provides a patient with heart failure with three options:
1. A bridge to a recovery [explanting or removing of the LVAD leaving the native heart]
2. A bridge to a transplant
3. Destination Therapy [end of life]
In Canada, heart failure is the number one reason for hospital admission. Of the five hundred thousand Canadians are living with heart failure, 25-40% are at risk of dying one year after diagnosis. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 2.1 years. Of all those diagnosed with severe heart failure only 5% qualify for a transplant or LVAD
My dad, John, with Dr. Delgado. Dr. Delgado is a member of the TGH transplant team & one of my dad's cardiologists.
In all, it was a very informative session and celebration on a lovely, sunny afternoon in Toronto & wonderful to be invited to such a great event and see familiar faces. We really are incredibly lucky to have such a cutting edge, competent and caring team at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital!
I just finished a teen novel called Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel. It is a about heart transplantation, donor family and organ recipient meeting and cellular memory [which apparently occurs more often with heart transplants]. This book was a tear jerker given our family experience with organ donation. Read below to learn about the inspiration behind the book.
After a bit of digging online, I discovered this review on goodreads.com by Lois Duncan:
Of course, I love it! This young adult novel about a girl who received s heart transplant is dedicated "To Lois, and to Kaitlyn whose heart lives on." One evening when my friend Lurlene and I were having dinner together,I told her about my daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette, who was chased down in her car and shot in the head in Albuquerque, NM, in 1989 (case is still unsolved). Kait was an organ doner, and, as the recipient of her heart and lungs came out from under the anesthetic, he described to his mother and to a nurse his vivid "dream" of a terrified girl being chased in her car by dark-complexioned men. Apparently Kait's final memories were transplanted along with her organs. I said to Lurlene, "This could be the plot of one of your novels." And, now, it is.(less)
Fourteen years ago today, Dr. Cusimano performed my dad's heart transplant surgery at Toronto General Hospital....we think his transplant was a bit of an experiment. At the time, the cut-off to receive a heart was 65 years old. My dad was 68 years old. A donor heart couldn't be over the age of 40 and my Dad's donor heart was 50 years old. If indeed he was an experiment, it worked!
Leaving Toronto General Hospital post-transplant with his brother, Dennis, wife [my mom], Mary,
and sisters, Mary and Rita. The large bag on his lap are his meds....
In the last fourteen years my dad has seen his children graduate university, marry, experienced the new lives of four gorgeous grandchildren, fourteen birthdays [and re-birthdays], Christmas', Thanksgivings, many trips to South Carolina together, summers with the pool, and so many other wonderful memories and milestones....
Dad with the classic [puffy] Prednisone face. This was taken in 1997 post-transplant in Etobicoke.
Dad [affectionally known as Nannan by my kids] last weekend with his four grandchildren.
We are eternally grateful for the generous gift of life given to him by his donor family and the amazing care from the transplant team at Toronto General Hospital and the impact it has had on our family. Today, we celebrated his re-birthday miracle with family and cupcakes :D
Happy Transplanniversary...fourteen years to the day :D
Our paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, Michael and our parents, Mary & John, at Michael's First Communion in the 1970's.
Today is the six month anniversary of my brother, Michael's, heart transplant. His biopsies are less frequent, rejection is minimal and his medications have continually been reduced. Michael is gradually gaining stamina & weight! My memories of Michael as a kid was of him devouring a can of Coke and a bag of salt & vinegar chips. Post-transplant, he now has a ravishing sweet tooth...it would seem that it came with the heart :D
The article below is worth reading. In a nut shell, scientists have grown a human heart using adult stem cells. The potential impact of this advancement is huge. Imagine you're body NOT rejecting your donor heart because it was made specifically for you? Incredible!
This video is from the University of Minnesota regarding this research that started a few years ago...
April 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers at the University of Minnesota used adult stem cells to create a living human heart that they hope will revolutionize transplants.
The breakthrough, said lead researcher Dr. Doris Taylor, could ultimately mean that “donated” hearts are no longer used in transplant operations, circumventing the ethical problems involved in organ donation and obviating the need for drugs to combat immune system rejection. Dr. Taylor, director of the university’s Center for Cardiovascular Repair, is one of the world’s leaders in heart organ repair and regeneration and has said it is her goal to create a living heart that can be transplanted into a patient, entirely out of stem cells. She presented her team’s findings at the American College of Cardiology’s annual conference in New Orleans.
“The hearts are growing, and we hope they will show signs of beating within the next weeks,” she told the Daily Mail. “There are many hurdles to overcome to generate a fully functioning heart, but my prediction is that it may one day be possible to grow entire organs for transplant.”
April 17th - 24th is National Organ and Tissue Awareness Week in Canada. John McCrae Senior Public School in Scarborough, Ontario, hosted Carrie Hoto from the Trillium Gift of Life Network to discuss organ donation with grade 7 & 8 students. Carrie's presentation was full of interesting information & students left with increased knowledge of the topic and a green ribbon to wear in support of organ donation. Here are some things that I learned today:
The oldest tissue donor in Ontario was 102 years old
The oldest organ donor in Ontario was 90 years old
Living lung donation [donation of two lung lobes] is currently in the works [although not in Ontario yet]
During a kidney transplant, the non-functioning kidney is not removed
Dialysis for a patient costs approximately $65,000 - $75,000 per year
A kidney transplant costs approximately $125,000
Shintuism is the only religion that does not support organ donation
Tissue donation can help up to 75 people
Currently, there are 1500 men, women & children waiting for an organ in Ontario
Carrie Hoto from Trillium Gift of Life speaking to a grade 7 class at John McCrae SPS in Scarborough
I would like to extend my appreciation to both Carrie Hoto and Nicole Poos from Trillium Gift of Life for making today possible!
