The University of Kansas Health System is treating 68 total COVID patients today, down from 74 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 15 with the active virus today, 16 yesterday
- 1 in ICU, 1 yesterday
- 0 on ventilators, 0 yesterday
- 53 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, 58 yesterday
Every nine minutes, a person is added to a transplant wait list. Today, we shared a wonderful story about a local woman who donated a kidney to the husband of an old high school friend, then celebrated by climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Tim Schmitt, Director of Transplantation, The University of Kansas Health System
- Posting about needing a kidney can be scary because people are reluctant to ask for help and may not have a big social support system.
- About 30-40 percent of our patients get a living donor, which is good because living donors can provide several advantages.
- If anybody has the ability to be a living donor, it’s a great way to help people and still live a normal life.
- We also want to avoid people going onto dialysis before a transplant because that does impact the overall quality of life.
- The living donor transplant process is a very efficient process with immediate results.
- Seeing stories like this with Stephanie and Dan helps encourage others to be living donors so they can help someone else and still lead a very normal life.
- COVID has provided more efficiency with telehealth in evaluating patients and donors.
Dan Harmon, transplant recipient
- Dan and his wife Katie posted on Facebook on World Kidney Day four years ago looking for a living donor.
- They were surprised by the amount of feedback, including from Katie’s high school friend, Stephanie Meyer.
- The surgery was very seamless and he saw immediate results with more energy.
- The ability to reconnect and share their lives with Stephanie has been remarkable. She gave all of them a tremendous a gift.
Stephanie Meyer, donor
- Giving back has been a huge priority in her life and she saw this post on the anniversary of the passing of her father, which has been an inspiration for her to give back.
- It has been an incredibly emotional and rewarding experience, but has gotten back to work and running just like before.
- She climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro on World Kidney Day with other kidney donors, which was a fulfilling experience to share with so many others.
- She said donating a kidney is one of the greatest things she’s ever done and has gotten more out of the process than she thought.
Friday, March 24 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. We’ll look at the steps we can take to ward off dementia and stay active and healthy in mind, body and soul as we age. Frank Boal, a familiar sportscaster in Kansas City, joins us to show how he keeps physically active in retirement.
ATTENTION: media procedure for joining:
Zoom link: https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone Zoom link: 1-312-626-6799, meeting ID: 782 897 8628
TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI
Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital
YouTube.com/kuhospital
Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.
