A daughter's gift to her mother saves two lives [View all]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-daughters-gift-to-her-mother-saves-two-lives/2019/05/11/59dead7c-7277-11e9-9eb4-0828f5389013_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

A daughter’s gift to her mother saves two lives

Just 42 years old, Erosalyn Deveza was drifting toward death. Her kidneys were barely functioning. She was constantly exhausted. She had vertigo and vomited frequently. She was tethered to a home dialysis machine for eight hours each night as she slept.

A kidney transplant was the only thing that could save her, but it was unlikely to happen in time. There is a severe shortage of kidneys from deceased donors in the United States. No one on Deveza’s side of the family could provide an organ through a living donation, doctors said, because all were at risk for the same kidney disease. It was too dangerous to leave any of them with a single kidney. Other family and friends were not a match.

This is a story of a daughter’s answer to her mother’s illness, an idea so obvious yet so inventive that it had never happened before, and hasn’t since.

It took four women, two computer scientists, teams of doctors and support staff, luck and uncommon selflessness to pull it off. Though it occurred nearly two years ago, few knew about the case until it was published in a medical journal last month.

This is a long article and all I can post is the opening. If you have a subscription to WaPo, you of course can read the whole article. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber you can also get to WaPo via Amazon. (Also check your local library and see if they have a subscription.)

I'll try and summarize the story. The daughter was doing everything she could to help her mother and, at the same time, trying to find a way to get her mother a kidney transplant. One of the new techniques is 'chained transplants' where Patient A needs a transplant, unfortunately even though there are several family members willing to donate to A, none of them are compatible. Patient B is in the same boat. Needs a transplant, willing donors, none compatible. But, a couple of the willing donors for B are actually compatible with A, and some of the willing donors for A are compatible with B. So an agreement is struck and an A donor gives a kidney or a lobe of the liver to B and a B donor gives their transplant to A.

This actually goes on. I think the longest 'chain' was something like 113 'chained transplants'.

OK, back to the story. Daughter is scouring the internet and stumbles over a researcher who is doing work in the field. Daughter gets in touch with researcher and says 'Hey, what if I give a lobe of my liver to someone who needs it and they have a doner who is willing to give a kidney to my mother? Why does it have to be liver for liver or kidney for kidney?' The researcher is stunned at the simplicity of the concept that no one has ever thought of before.

After some more research, checking with the Medical Ethics panel and the like, the idea gets approved, mama gets her new kidney and daughter donates a lobe of her liver and two lives are saved.

Talk about thinking outside the box.