The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 50 COVID patients today, up from 49 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 26 with the active virus today, 24 yesterday
- 6 in ICU, 6 yesterday
- 2 on ventilators, 3 yesterday
- 24 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, 25 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Erron Jay, actor, Kansas City native, kidney transplant recipient
- Diagnosed with stage four renal disease causing kidney failure
- Needed a new kidney fast
- Some Hollywood friends organized a campaign to find a donor for Erron and it worked. Found a partial match, who was able to participate in a kidney exchange. It allowed Erron to be transplanted with a perfect match, and three people in total received new kidneys
- He had the transplant a year ago and is feeling better than ever today.
- Says “You don’t know exactly how bad you feel until you get the new kidney.”
- Calls getting a new kidney his “cheat code” in life. It means after having a kidney transplant, any other battle in life seems trivial.
Dr. Diane Cibrik, medical director of Kidney Transplantation
- It’s difficult having to ask someone for a kidney to either avoid or get off of kidney dialysis. “Life on dialysis is no life.”
- Despite COVID, transplants never stopped at the health system, with a record number being performed
- Hypertension and diabetes are the most common causes of kidney disease
- Kidney disease often takes a long time to develop and patients may not realize something is wrong for a long time
- Kidney donors are put through very rigorous testing, which is one reason why they hardly ever develop problems with their remaining kidney later in life
Dr. Tim Schmidt, director of Transplantation
- Living kidney donations are better for the recipient than from a deceased person as they are usually in better condition and last longer
- Says it never gets old watching as a new kidney transplanted to a recipient begins functioning almost immediately
- Feels great giving people a new lease on life
Haley Jensen, director of Transplant Programs, National Kidney Foundation
- Received a kidney transplant herself when she was a teenager
- No one set of criteria for determining who gets a kidney transplant. Every patient is different.
- Big Ask Big Give is national campaign to help bring awareness to living kidney donations
- You can be a kidney donor by indicating it on your driver’s license or contacting your nearest transplant center
Dr. Matt Shoemaker, interim co-director Division of Infectious Diseases, The University of Kansas Health System
- Calls it “guarded optimism” that the World Health Organization says it appears the end of the COVID pandemic is in sight
- Even though the trend is improving because of vaccine rollouts, there are still 4,000 hospitalizations a day for COVID in the U.S.
- Only half of the population in the U.S. has received their first booster, so there is a lot of room for improvement
- The new bivalent vaccine booster will make a difference for those who get it now that different strains of the virus will be covered
Monday, September 19 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. The FDA has approved another immunotherapy to fight a deadly cancer known as multiple myeloma. We meet the first patients to receive this novel therapy and meet the medical team that made it happen.
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