The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 28 COVID patients today, 26 yesterday. Other significant numbers:

• 12 with the active virus today, 10 yesterday
• 0 in ICU, 0 yesterday
• 0 on a ventilator, 0 yesterday

Key points from today’s guests:

Archie Moore, heart transplant recipient

• Archie is no stranger to the hospital. She worked as a nurse at The University of Kansas Hospital for 28 years before retiring in 2020.
• A year after retiring, she noticed she was having various heart-related issues and before Christmas 2022, her doctors put her on a heart transplant wait list because her situation was so dire.
• On while celebrating Christmas Eve with her family that includes 13 grandchildren, Archie got the call that they had found a heart for her.
• She is so thankful for the person who donated the heart and thanks everyone who took care of her from her family and doctors and nurses to the support staff at the Health System.
• Archie said she is feeling so much better and is close to being back to normal health.

Tiedra Moore, Archie’s daughter

• She trusted her mom, based on her years of medical experience, to make the right decision about a heart transplant.
• As the oldest daughter, she knew she had to be strong throughout this process for her mom and the entire family.
• This Mother’s Day – and every holiday with the family – will be more special knowing that Archie is a part of it.

Jan Caldwell, nurse practitioner, The University of Kansas Health System

• When she first saw Archie in the hospital, she knew Archie was in trouble and elevated her care to the ICU.
• Her heart pumping capacity was at 10 percent, so it was just barely squeezing the blood out. And the fact that she physically could not walk from the hospital bed to the bathroom without being so symptomatic was very concerning.
• After the transplant, Jan keeps in close contact with Archie to monitor her recovery and progress.
• This involves a schedule of clinic visits and routine lab tests. Transplant patients are seen quite frequently to keep an eye on things.

Dr. Matthew Danter, cardiothoracic surgeon; surgical director, cardiac transplant & mechanical circulatory support, The University of Kansas Health System

• Moving forward with a heart transplant involves a multidisciplinary team that includes everything from surgeons to the nurses and coordinators that are involved with the process – psychiatry, physical therapy, basically every element that you would want to have involved with someone's sort of comprehensive care is involved with that decision.
• After that, we assess the clinical parameters. We assess the social and psychological parameters and then basically it's a group committee decision to put someone on the list.
• Heart failure is a very insidious process and it's a very slow burn with gradual declines in your functional status that happen over months and sometimes years.
• It's difficult sometimes to perceive when the dramatic changes have happened. We have many people that present quite late with their heart failure.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System

• Doctors in Nevada have noticed a cluster of rare brain infections in children.
• There were 18 cases in 2022, which is triple the normal amount. Fortunately, there have been no reported deaths.
• In our practice here at the Health System, we work very closely with our neurosurgeon colleagues and we do see a lot of brain abscesses, but there are many reasons why people can get these infections and we have not seen this spike.
• We need to keep up our surveillance and our investigations of these processes. And if there does look like it does seem to be a true increase, figure out why that is and try to prevent it as well.
• This is just one more thing that the medical community is noticing more anecdotally after the height of the pandemic.
  
  

Monday, May 8 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. When a father of two had a stroke, doctors used an advanced technique that restored blood flow to his brain. A previous heart attack had left an undetected blood clot. Learn what to look for if someone you know is having stroke. 

ATTENTION MEDIA: Please note access is with Microsoft Teams:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 235 659 792 451
Passcode: 6CSfGE

Download Teams | Join on the web

Or call in (audio only)

+1 913-318-8863,566341546#   United States, Kansas City

TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI

Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital

YouTube.com/kuhospital

Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.