Batteling of life threatening disease

[wdlove]

A mother prayed that her son might live. Her 18 year old son had diabetes, his body was ravaged by the disease. He recieved a gift that could not go under the tree. A pancreatic transplant, it is risky, but now he no longer needs to use insulin.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/2725627/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_health&ts=T&tmi=bos_health_1_12150012252003

 

[eyelikeart]

Wow. That's amazing. I hope they keep up with him to show his progress.

At least the death risk is low for him, but what's the ratio of rejection for this type of operation?

 

[gwuMACaddict]

great post wdlove, keep us posted with the progress if they do any followups

 

[wdlove]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
Wow. That's amazing. I hope they keep up with him to show his progress.

At least the death risk is low for him, but what's the ratio of rejection for this type of operation?

I found on article that indicated a 53.4% success rate with a pancreas transplant. The rejection needs to be caught early in order to have success. They often do a kidney and panreas transplant simultaneously, because it is easier to detect rejection in the kidney. The urine flow decreases.

Anatomy http://www.pancreastransplant.org/

Success of up to 77% when done with a Kidney transplant.
http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-30.html

 

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by wdlove
Success of up to 77% when done with a Kidney transplant.
http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-30.html

A good friend of my mom's had a kidney donation from her husband. She's got lupus, and has been thru a lot in the past 10 years or so.

She had the transplant 5 or 6 years ago I think, and earlier this year her body started rejecting it. Sad.

 

[wdlove]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
A good friend of my mom's had a kidney donation from her husband. She's got lupus, and has been thru a lot in the past 10 years or so.

She had the transplant 5 or 6 years ago I think, and earlier this year her body started rejecting it. Sad.

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom's friend eyelikeart. I worked in a Kidney Transplant Unit for about 2 years. We had 2 live donor transplants during my time. Both were sucessful at the time. One was a mother and daughter, the other were brothers. It is actually a more painful surgery for the donor. You can't imagine what a happy time is is to see the urine flowing.

It reminded me of the show that I saw on "NightLine" Friday December 26th. "The Ultimate Gift" it was a live donation, a brother gave 60% of his liver to his brother. There is risk for both in this surgery, unlike with a kidney. For the donor the liver does have great power of regeneration.

They do have a lot of new anti rejection drugs that might help. I pray that she will be successful!

http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/Nightline/