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Good Things Come in Twos (x2!) for Henry County Woman

March 18th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Over five years ago, Kerry King felt very sick with prolonged episodes of nausea, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, and swelling.  She visited a community-based medical clinic, but her blood pressure was so high, they sent her to a local hospital where where she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and an enlarged heart.

After her diagnosis, an ambulance rushed Kerry to Emory University Hospital where she was admitted to an intensive care unit and diagnosed with a rare lung disorder, primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH.) PPH is characterized by increased pressure in the pulmonary artery, whereby the pulmonary artery carries oxygen-poor blood from the lower chamber on the right side of the heart to the lungs where it picks up oxygen.

After a heart catheterization and battery of other tests, Kerry was discharged from Emory University Hospital and returned home to Henry County with around-the-clock intravenous medication to mange the symptoms. On medication 24/7 for nearly five years, Kerry was forced to live a very limited lifestyle. Daily tasks became a major challenge, “I couldn’t even walk up the stairs to the bedroom at night – my husband carried me.” Trips to the hospital became more frequent and it became clear something had to be done.

Two days after Christmas in 2009, Kerry was placed on a lung transplant list at Emory, for not just one, but a double lung transplant. With her condition worsening by the day and after being informed she had about six weeks to live, all she could do was wait. And with nearly 2,000 people in the U.S. currently awaiting a lung transplant, finding two lungs for Kerry’s transplant had the potential to pose a serious barrier in saving the life of this Hampton, GA native.

Less than a month later, the good news came, and now, Kerry counts herself among the most lucky to have found a double lung transplant in time to save her life. Today, just over a year removed from her life-transforming experience, Kerry counts her lucky charms in the gifts that surround her each day, her twin sons, Justin and Austin, and the second chance at life she has thanks to her transplant that took place at Emory University Hospital.

After months of rehabilitation, Kerry returned home from the hospital.  That night, Kerry was enjoying her family and when bedtime for her twins came around, her son Justin went to the stairs and called to his Daddy to complete the only nightly routine he remembered in his young life, “Daddy, it’s time for you to carry Mommy upstairs.”   But on this night, for Kerry, those stairs were no longer a challenge.

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Emory Transplant Center Achieves and Sustains Outstanding Quality Outcomes

February 23rd, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

Transplant Center OutcomesThe idea of replacing an organ via transplant can be a scary topic for people faced with a condition that may require one. At Emory, we’re consistently taking steps to improve transplant survival rates and hopefully, remove some of this fear for our patients. We’ve just received results from the January 2011 transplant center-specific report on outcomes from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). We’re very pleased to announce that the Emory kidney transplant program, liver transplant program, and lung transplant program have all demonstrated consistently strong and in some cases better-than-expected patient outcomes.

Kidney Transplant

  • Emory’s overall one-year graft survival rate of 95.85% for the most recent cohort studied (July 2007 – December 2009) is statistically higher (p = .026) than the expected rate of 92.81%.
  • Emory’s living-donor graft survival rate of 100% is statistically higher (p =.033) than the expected rate of 96.36%.
  • Emory’s deceased donor graft survival rate is also numerically higher than expected (93.69% observed vs. 90.95% expected).

We’re pleased to also note that in 2010, the Emory transplant team performed 207 kidney transplants, and 22 pancreas transplant procedures – the largest number of transplants in the history of the kidney and pancreas transplant program. Of the 207 kidney transplants, 31% (64) involved living donors.

Lung Transplant

  • Emory’s one-year patient survival rate for the latest cohort (July 2007 – December 2009) is 90.14%, compared to a risk-adjusted expected rate of 82.74%.
  • Emory’s graft survival rate is 85.29%, compared to a risk-adjusted expected rate of 81.10%.

This past year, the Emory Transplant Center and team of transplant doctors performed its 300th lung transplant. The lung program has come a long way to reach this milestone, performing 35 transplants in 2010, a 300% increase over the annual total just 10 years ago.

Liver Transplant

Emory’s liver transplant program continues to achieve and sustain outstanding outcomes, with patient survival rates >91% following transplantation.

Since July 2008, our surgical transplant team has performed 241 liver transplantations (216 liver only, 25 liver/kidney combination transplants). Between January 1, 1988 – November 30, 2010, Emory has performed 67.9% (1,496 of 2,203) of all liver transplants in the state of Georgia.

Our transplant center continues to excel with statistically significant patient organ transplantation outcomes, demonstrating a commitment to high quality and patient success. If you have questions about our transplant program or outcomes, please leave them in the comments section below.

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Knocking the ‘What Ifs’ Out of the Park

February 9th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Georgia native and Wake Forest University baseball player’s life saved by Coach Tom, Emory Transplant Center, and divine intervention.

Kevin Jordan Wake Forest Kidney Transplant at Emory

Wake Forest University baseball coach Tom Walter and Wake Forest student athlete Kevin Jordan, with Dr. Alan Kirk, the Emory Transplant Center surgeon

We can find a reason in almost every situation to ask, “what if?” But what if, we didn’t? What if instead, we took a more active role in doing the right thing regardless of chance? Sometimes, it’s the ‘what ifs’ in life that prove to reveal a clear purpose in hindsight, and that’s exactly what’s been demonstrated in one of the most amazing stories we here at Emory have witnessed.

One year ago, while still a senior at Northside Columbus High School in Columbus, GA, Kevin Jordan was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis, an autoimmune disorder that typically leads to almost immediate kidney failure. Kevin, an all-star baseball player who, at the time was being actively recruited by both Wake Forest University (WFU) and Auburn, was faced with an illness that could potentially change his future not only in baseball, but in life.

When faced with life-altering barriers, many of us give up– not Kevin. Despite his diagnosis meaning days that were previously filled with class and practice would now also need to accommodate 11-12 hours attached to a dialysis machine, he displayed the same courage and passion he is known for on the field. The same courage and passion that led Wake Forest University baseball coach, Tom Walter, to extend an offer to Kevin to continue his student-athlete career at WFU.

Despite circumstances, Kevin didn’t give up. He accepted the offer to attend Wake Forest and in doing so, immediately became part of a family he previously didn’t know existed. A family that would prove to play a role so fundamental to Kevin’s life that from it, a true genetic/medical connection would be established.

During his time at Wake Forest, Coach Tom noticed that Kevin’s strength and speed on the field had begun to deteriorate since high school. What hadn’t, was his “sweet swing” of the baseball bat. Kevin was clearly being impeded by his condition, but continued to attend practice with his team daily. He knew each day he would return to his dorm to spend the next 12 hours with his dialysis machine, but he kept his head up.

At this point, Kevin was in desperate need of a kidney. After both his mother and brother failed to meet matching criteria to serve as living donors, he didn’t have very many options. And that’s where Kevin’s second family comes into play. As much as he does his own two daughters, Wake Forest’s Coach Tom considers each and every player he’s ever coached to be part of his own family. Not even a year into Kevin’s time at WFU but already part of the family, Coach Tom himself volunteered to step up and be evaluated for a kidney donor match.

With only a 15% chance of a non-family member making it through the organ transplant matching to donation process, the chances of Coach Tom’s kidney being a viable option for Kevin were slim, but… what if? Coach Tom proved to be a viable organ donor for Kevin, and without hesitation, he agreed.

As if the family connection wasn’t already strong for members of the Wake Forest baseball team, it just got a whole lot stronger. After completing the living donor transplant from Coach Walter to Kevin on Monday, Emory’s Dr. Newell and Dr. Kirk have established an official medical bond between family members at WFU. Today, Kevin, Coach Tom, and doctors Newell and Kirk spoke on the results of the procedure and just two days after the transplant, both Kevin and Coach Tom were bright eyed and hopeful for things to come.

Coach Tom was asked at the recent press conference, what if one of his daughters needs a kidney transplant in the future and serving as the donor is no longer an option? In his response, we saw the same strength of character that Kevin has demonstrated all along. Coach Tom remarked that much like you can’t live your life as a hermit for fear you might be in a car accident upon leaving the house, so too we cannot live our lives in fear of ‘what ifs’.

Coach Tom previously served as head coach of the University of New Orleans (UNO) program and during his time there is when Hurricane Katrina hit. Coach Tom looks at his experiences with his UNO family in the same way he does his experiences at WFU and he attributes them to some form of divine intervention. More than anything, this story teaches us to stop questioning and worrying about ‘what ifs’ and to instead focus on doing the right thing, assuming you will be given the opportunity at the right time.

A combination of strength of character and a multitude of elements of chance for Kevin mean that instead of facing a lifetime of hardship, he has just 8 weeks of recovery time ahead of him. And if his past is any indication of his future, he is sure to continue as he has in the past– with passion and ambition to overcome even the most trying circumstances. And with any luck, he’ll be back on the diamond with his coach and family in no time.

View the video of today’s press conference with Kevin Jordan, Coach Tom, and the Emory Transplant Team.

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Innovative Treatment for Bile Duct Cancer Being Offered at Emory Transplant Center

January 20th, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

The Emory Transplant Center is the only transplant center in Atlanta or the state of Georgia, and one of a few places in the country, performing a novel, life-saving protocol to treat bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma). Cholangiocarcinoma is a lethal and aggressive cancer. Traditionally, the disease is treated with resection, surgically removing the tumor, but in many cases the cancer tends to continue to spread around the bile duct. In the past, patients with non-resectable bile duct cancer had little chance of survival.

The new protocol combines chemotherapy and radiation with a liver transplant, improving the likelihood of removing the entire source of cancer during surgery. The chemotherapy and radiation treat and sterilize the tumor bed, but using these options alone may eventually cause liver failure and thus the need for replacing the liver by performing a transplant.

Until recent years, patients diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma had few treatment options and little chance of survival. This new protocol offers hope and optimism to patients with this difficult disease. Learn more about treatment for bile duct cancer from the video below:

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Transplant Nursing Pioneer Revisits Emory Transplant Center 45 Years Later

December 20th, 2010 By Emory Transplant Center

Millie Elliott, RN, MNNearly 45 years after she cared for Georgia’s first organ transplant recipient, Millie Elliott, 84, stepped through the doors of the Emory Transplant Center outpatient transplant clinic (OTC) for the first time to see how things have changed since her time at Emory. Elliott, who was Millie Burns at the time, worked at Emory University Hospital first as an obstetrics nurse, and then as head nurse of an NIH-sponsored clinical research unit at Emory from 1961 to 1967. She served as a dialysis nurse on this unit and may have been the Southeast’s first renal transplant coordinator.

During her recent visit to the transplant center, this former Cadet Nurse Corps nurse and World War II veteran regaled the transplant center staff and kidney transplant program director Dr. Thomas Pearson with her stories about the first transplant at Emory. Elliott recalled spending a lot of time researching medical sources to prepare herself and her nurses for that remarkable day, from learning about the best dialysis and sterilization practices to caring for patients in the OR and at the bedside. The first transplant patient was a 16-year-old boy with renal failure who received a donor kidney from his father.

Things were quite different in the world of kidney transplant back then. “We didn’t have outpatient dialysis centers in those days,” Elliott recalls. “Patients could only have dialysis in research centers, and we had to follow strict protocols. We had to notate each medication and chemically catalogue everything the patient ate and excreted. Not a drop of urine was lost in analysis.”

Dialysis patients would come to Emory regularly at 10-day intervals. An actual washing machine without the wringer and agitator served as the dialysis machine, and the hospital’s pharmacists prepared a special mix of chemicals to cleanse the blood. “We stirred the dry chemicals with our hands and mixed it with water,” she says. “The patient’s blood moved through an IV tube—the tube acted as a filter—into this chemical ‘bath’ and then into the machine. The process was very sterile.”

The first transplant patient stayed in an isolation room. “I suggested —and Dr. Garland Herndon [the research center's director] agreed— that we put a mat soaked with formaldehyde on the floor at the patient’s door, so that we didn’t track germs into his room on our shoes.”

After her time at the Emory Transplant Center, Elliott worked with Joy Bradley, a fellow Emory master’s program alumna, to apply for a grant to establish the largest associate’s degree nursing program in the U.S. at DeKalb College (now Perimeter College), and she later became its director. She also served as a federal government quality assurance nurse who helped develop regulations that established dialysis centers across the country. In addition, she created national nursing seminars and an educational film for physicians and nurses on maintaining infection control in dialysis centers.

Millie Elliott is a true example of the impact one person can have on medical innovation. Not only has she passed on this incredible nursing legacy to future generations—her daughter is a family nurse practitioner and her granddaughter is a pediatric ICU nurse—she also has helped pave the way for the nearly 3,500 kidney transplants the ETC has performed since the first one in 1966. We’re very proud of Millie Elliott’s efforts and the efforts of the Emory Transplant Center, a leading organ transplant program in the U.S.

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Jo Ellen Kimball – the Miracle of Transplant

November 26th, 2010 By Emory Transplant Center

Jo Ellen Kimball became somewhat of an Emory University Hospital celebrity when she became Emory Healthcare’s 300th lung transplant patient since the lung transplant program‘s creation more than 17 years ago in 1993. In this video and slideshow, Kimball tells her story and thanks the transplant team and the family of the organ donor.

For more information on Emory Healthcare’s transplant program, visit our transplant center website.

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From Kidney Transplant to Gold Medals

October 27th, 2010 By Emory Transplant Center

Ken Sutha National Kidney Foundation U.S. Transplant GamesBack in 2006, at the age of 24, Ken Sutha received his living donor kidney transplant at Emory. His donor was none other than his own father. Four years later, not only has Ken made remarkable strides in his overall health, but even more amazing, he has gone from a non-athlete to a world class swimmer.

Ken practices each day after class at Georgia Tech, where he’s a student in the Emory and Georgia Tech MD/PhD program. Recently, his practice paid off in a big way. Back in August, Ken returned home from Madison, Wisconsin where he was a participant in the 2010 National Kidney Foundation (NKF) U.S. Transplant Games.

Representing Team Georgia, Ken competed in the 100-yard medley, 50-yard butterly, 100-yard backstroke, and 500-yard freestyle events. A tremendous feat for someone who underwent a life changing transplant. What’s even more impressive? Ken left the NKF U.S. Transplant Games with two gold medals and one silver medal. However, it was not the medals, but the experience, that left a lasting impression on Ken.

“My favorite part of the Games was meeting other recipients, living donors, and donor families,” Ken notes. “One of our Emory recipients, Sherrell Gay, celebrated her eighth anniversary of her heart transplant at the closing ceremony on Tues., Aug. 3,” he continues. “She competed in table tennis this year.”

Ken is a shining example that those who undergo solid organ transplants are able to return to a normal high-quality life, and often, can achieve a level of health they never reached prior to transplant. In addition to swimming, Ken competes in sprint triathlons to stay in shape. His last sprint was at the Rock ‘N Rollman Triathlon in June in Macon, GA. We will continue to keep you posted on Ken’s remarkable achievements.

Or, if you’re interested in learning more about the games or kidney transplant from Ken, please leave your questions in the comments below. Ken will be responding to any questions you have for him!

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Emory Transplant Program Milestone – 300 Lung Transplants

October 6th, 2010 By Emory Transplant Center

For a young mother of two teen-aged sons, living life attached to an oxygen tank is not an ideal situation. For Jo Ellen Kimball, 40, however, this was the life she had grown accustomed to living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a condition that essentially turns the lungs to stone. As Jo Ellen’s physician and Medical Director of Lung Transplantation at Emory Transplant Center, Dr. Clinton Lawrence puts it, “Imagine trying to breathe through lava rock every day of your life.” The five-year survival rate of IPF is less than 20% and as of now, lung transplantation is the only known treatment.

Since September 17th, however, Jo Ellen’s outlook on life and future has changed drastically. It was on this day that she underwent her double lung transplant at Emory University Hospital.

After the procedure, Jo Ellen was able to regain her ability to breathe on her own after only nine days, a remarkable achievement. And after six years of life spent facilitated by an oxygen tank, Jo Ellen Kimball can now return to a normal life and possibly even return to her position as a fourth grade teacher.

As if this positive momentous life change for Jo Ellen wasn’t enough, she was also informed that her procedure resulted in even further celebration– Jo Ellen’s procedure was the 300th lung transplant performed by Emory’s Transplant Program (established in 1993).

Much like the journey Jo Ellen has experienced to free herself from the constraints of IPF, Emory’s lung transplant program has traveled quite a distance in reaching this milestone. The program is not a high-volume transplant program when compared to Emory’s other solid organ transplant programs. In fact, in 2009, 35 lung transplants were performed by the program, its most ever in a single year and a 300% increase from a decade before.

With generous donations and the help of doctors like Clinton Lawrence and Jo Ellen’s surgeon and Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation at Emory Transplant Center, Dr. Seth Force, the lung transplant program continues to grow and gain momentum.

“Emory has the only lung transplant program in the state,” notes Dr. Lawrence. “We provide a necessary and quality service to individuals from all walks of life from Georgia and surrounding states, including Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana.”

After a few weeks of recovery at Emory, Jo Ellen has since returned home to Conyers, GA to rest and recover with her family. We will be sure to keep you updated on her journey.

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Belatacept Transplant Drug Offers Hope for Preserving Kidney Function

September 15th, 2010 By Dr. Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil

Today, kidney transplantation provides patients with invaluable benefits—it prolongs lifespan and restores vitality and health. However, this hasn’t always been the case. As recently as the 1980s, results of transplants were fairly poor, and kidneys were often lost from rejection. In 1983, the cyclosporine class of drugs entered the equation, revolutionizing transplantation. Short-term outcomes improved greatly, and we expected most of our patients to survive with a functioning graft—90% of them at the 1-year mark.

Unfortunately, while cyclosporine is ideal for short-term outcomes, it causes many side effects that affect long-term outcomes in patients. Cyclosporine is toxic to the kidney—over time, this causes excess scarring and eventually even leads to loss of kidney function.

In approximately one-third of patients, cyclosporine causes post-transplant diabetes, requiring most patients to take blood pressure lowering medications. Additionally, most must take medications to lower their cholesterol. (High blood pressure and increased cholesterol counts are both side effects of cyclosporine.) Ultimately, patients must take the anti-rejection drugs along with a host of other drugs to combat the side effects, all of which can lead to death from cardiovascular disease. On average, the kidney transplant patient survival rate is only 8-10 yrs, which is clearly short of what we’d like to see.

Sufficed to say, there’s been a tremendous need for better drugs to prevent rejection in kidney transplants, without causing life-threatening side effects.

Introducing Belatacept

When kidney patients suffer from transplant rejection, the immune system essentially recognizes the new kidney as a foreign object, causing lymphocytes and T-cells to attack, and generating immune damage to the transplant. Consequently, we introduce drugs to dampen the immune system. The issue with cyclosporine is that it doesn’t just affect the immune response; it hits several other targets throughout the body, causing the negative side effects. Fortunately, there’s hope on the horizon with a newer drug called belatacept.

Like Cyclosporine, belatacept blocks the immune system from transplant rejection. However, the target of belatacept is only expressed in the immune system, so it suppresses undesired immune responses of rejection without the off target side effects (e.g. high blood pressure, increased cholesterol and diabetes) seen with Cyclosporine. We refer to these off-target responses as “costimulatory signals”.

In transplantation, our goal is to achieve a normal life span for our patients, and to ideally have them move on from surgery dialysis-free. At Emory, we’ve dedicated years to developing new and improved therapies that avoid major complications from kidney transplants, including cardiovascular issues, infections and malignancies.

Recent belatacept studies indicate that this drug could quite possibly help us in achieving these goals. Over 1400 patients have been studied with belatacept’s use in kidney transplant, and the results continue to be extremely promising. Further, the drug could conceivably have advantages for other types of organ transplantation, including liver, heart, lung, and intestinal.

Do you have any questions about belatacept, or about kidney transplantation in general? If so, please let me know in the comments.

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Welcome to the Emory Healthcare Transplant Center Blog

September 14th, 2010 By Emory Transplant Center

We’re delighted to be the next Emory Healthcare medical department to join the “Advancing Your Health” blog.

Our posts will be authored by physicians, patients, and staff, and our blog content will consist of recent Emory Transplant Center medical innovations, patient success stories, videos, educational pieces, and newsworthy events.

The Transplant Center has pioneered many firsts in the transplant field, including Georgia’s first kidney transplant in 1966, and its first lung transplant in 1993. We offer transplantation programs for the Hand, Heart, Islet, Kidney, Liver, Lung and Pancreas.

For us, the Transplant Center blog is an ideal opportunity to create a dialogue with our community—we strongly encourage you to join the conversation and share your comments, questions and stories with us. Also, if there are specific topics that you’d like for us to cover, please be sure to let us know.

We look forward to connecting with you and hearing your feedback!

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