How to Help Someone Recover From a Liver Transplant | eHow.comIntroduction
Long-term survival for liver transplant requires excellent home nursing care and family support. Your participation can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection of the new liver.
Instructions
Difficulty: Challenging
Steps
1Step OneHelp the patient with medications, which should be taken at the same time each day. For the first month, she may be tired and a bit unfocused. Make a chart of medicines and the times you give them.
2Step TwoTake her temperature and blood pressure twice a day, at the same time each day, and write them down in a journal. Before breakfast and dinner is best.
3Step ThreeEncourage her to move around. Lend your arm to steady her for walks.
4Step FourAvoid smacking against the new liver, the surgical site or the abdomen. Avoid the surgical site when helping her to move around. Take care not to apply pressure to the incision and surrounding area.
5Step FiveMonitor the color of stools, and make sure her bowels are moving regularly. Clay-colored stools or constipation lasting longer than two days should be reported to the transplant coordinator.
6Step SixKeep your patient's incision and T-tube clean. Wipe the site and tube insertion site with a betadine swab, or follow whatever procedure recommended by your transplant coordinator.
7Step SevenPrepare nutritious, high-fiber, low-salt meals.
8Step EightListen to your loved one, who may feel depressed or frightened and may need to talk. Consider contacting your transplant coordinator for professional counseling.
9Step NineLearn the signs and symptoms of rejection and infection. Report them to the transport coordinator immediately.
10Step TenPrevent infection. Wash hands frequently, especially when you return home after shopping and other errands. No one who is sick or getting
Promoting Organ Donations the Gift of Life
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
French scientists develop new strategy to stop transplant rejection
CORDIS : News
French scientists develop new strategy to stop transplant rejection
[Date: 2008-01-04]
French researchers have developed a new therapy which successfully prevents transplant rejection while avoiding many of the side effects of the drugs currently given to transplant patients.
The results, carried out by a team led by Joost van Meerwijk of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Controlling the body's extremely strong immune reaction to transplanted organs remains a major challenge for modern medicine. Immunosuppressant drugs have improved survival in the first year after transplant by effectively preventing acute rejection of the new organ. However, they are less effective at preventing chronic rejection which arises much later and affects a significant number of transplant patients. Furthermore, as immunosuppressants block the entire immune system, patients taking them are particularly prone to opportunistic infections and the development of certain cancers.
In healthy people, special cells called regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) ensure that the body's immune system does not turn against itself. For a number of years, Professor Van Meerwijk and his colleagues have been investigating ways of taking advantage of this regulatory role of Tregs in transplant medicine.
In 2004, they showed that regulatory T lymphocytes effectively inhibited the rejection of a bone marrow transplant in mice. However, until now they have proven less effective at preventing the rejection of skin and heart transplants. Undeterred, the researchers designed a new experiment based on the fact that a bone marrow transplant makes subsequent organ transplants easier.
The first step of the newly designed protocol involved placing regulatory T lymphocytes in a culture with cells from the organ donor. Over a two week period, the T cells effectively 'learnt' to recognise the organ which was to be transplanted.
The scientists then carried out a double transplant on the recipient mouse, involving both bone marrow and an organ (either skin or heart). At the same time, the mice received an injection of Tregs from the culture.
The experiment was a success, with neither acute nor chronic rejection of either transplant taking place. 'In conclusion, we have demonstrated that adequately prestimulated Tregs can be used to protect skin and cardiac allografts from acute and chronic rejection,' the scientists write.
'This cellular therapy has two major advantages: an effective prevention of chronic rejection and a specificity of immunosuppression towards the transplanted organ, thereby avoiding a large number of undesirable side effects,' commented Professor Van Meerwijk.
The next step is to find out if the same procedure could be as effective in humans. The researchers note that the induction of tolerance to organs or tissues should be feasible using their protocol or a modified version of it. Furthermore, with some adjustments it could also be used to induce tolerance to transplants taken from dead organ donors.
French scientists develop new strategy to stop transplant rejection
[Date: 2008-01-04]
French researchers have developed a new therapy which successfully prevents transplant rejection while avoiding many of the side effects of the drugs currently given to transplant patients.
The results, carried out by a team led by Joost van Meerwijk of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Controlling the body's extremely strong immune reaction to transplanted organs remains a major challenge for modern medicine. Immunosuppressant drugs have improved survival in the first year after transplant by effectively preventing acute rejection of the new organ. However, they are less effective at preventing chronic rejection which arises much later and affects a significant number of transplant patients. Furthermore, as immunosuppressants block the entire immune system, patients taking them are particularly prone to opportunistic infections and the development of certain cancers.
In healthy people, special cells called regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) ensure that the body's immune system does not turn against itself. For a number of years, Professor Van Meerwijk and his colleagues have been investigating ways of taking advantage of this regulatory role of Tregs in transplant medicine.
In 2004, they showed that regulatory T lymphocytes effectively inhibited the rejection of a bone marrow transplant in mice. However, until now they have proven less effective at preventing the rejection of skin and heart transplants. Undeterred, the researchers designed a new experiment based on the fact that a bone marrow transplant makes subsequent organ transplants easier.
The first step of the newly designed protocol involved placing regulatory T lymphocytes in a culture with cells from the organ donor. Over a two week period, the T cells effectively 'learnt' to recognise the organ which was to be transplanted.
The scientists then carried out a double transplant on the recipient mouse, involving both bone marrow and an organ (either skin or heart). At the same time, the mice received an injection of Tregs from the culture.
The experiment was a success, with neither acute nor chronic rejection of either transplant taking place. 'In conclusion, we have demonstrated that adequately prestimulated Tregs can be used to protect skin and cardiac allografts from acute and chronic rejection,' the scientists write.
'This cellular therapy has two major advantages: an effective prevention of chronic rejection and a specificity of immunosuppression towards the transplanted organ, thereby avoiding a large number of undesirable side effects,' commented Professor Van Meerwijk.
The next step is to find out if the same procedure could be as effective in humans. The researchers note that the induction of tolerance to organs or tissues should be feasible using their protocol or a modified version of it. Furthermore, with some adjustments it could also be used to induce tolerance to transplants taken from dead organ donors.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
This gift did not arrive under the tree
Woodstock Sentinel-Review, Woodstock, ON
This gift did not arrive under the tree
One Person's View
Kristi Setterington
Thursday January 03, 2008
The best gift a former director of education for the London District Catholic School Board received this Christmas wasn’t found under the tree, but rather through the generosity of one family.
Joe Rapai received a much needed liver transplant in November and was home in time to celebrate the holidays with his family.
"God has blessed me because everything is wonderful. It is a second life. It is the gift of life," he said upon his return home.
Rapai believes education is the best way to promote organ donation. He plans to become part of the education process, by making himself available to encourage people to consider signing organ donor cards.
Each year thousands of Ontarians receive a second chance at life, because of the decision families make to give the gift of life and donate organs and tissues. But with that said, there are still many of who are waiting.
Rapai spent the better part of four years waiting for his new liver. The waiting was harder than the actual surgery, he said.
Some will wait years and will lose their lives because suitable donors are not found in time.
Rapai is one of the lucky ones. According to the Trillium Gift of Life network, more than 350 people in Ontario are waiting for a new liver.
The Trillium Gift of Life network says over 1,600 people are awaiting transplants in Ontario. Organs and tissues that can be donated include the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, small bowel, stomach, corneas, heart valves, bone and skin.
You can get a donor card by calling the Trillium Gift of Life Network at 1-800-263-2833. Donor cards can also be found with every driver’s licence renewal and in many doctor’s offices.
By agreeing to be an organ donor, you can help give the gift of life to someone in need. Sign your organ donation card today.
This gift did not arrive under the tree
One Person's View
Kristi Setterington
Thursday January 03, 2008
The best gift a former director of education for the London District Catholic School Board received this Christmas wasn’t found under the tree, but rather through the generosity of one family.
Joe Rapai received a much needed liver transplant in November and was home in time to celebrate the holidays with his family.
"God has blessed me because everything is wonderful. It is a second life. It is the gift of life," he said upon his return home.
Rapai believes education is the best way to promote organ donation. He plans to become part of the education process, by making himself available to encourage people to consider signing organ donor cards.
Each year thousands of Ontarians receive a second chance at life, because of the decision families make to give the gift of life and donate organs and tissues. But with that said, there are still many of who are waiting.
Rapai spent the better part of four years waiting for his new liver. The waiting was harder than the actual surgery, he said.
Some will wait years and will lose their lives because suitable donors are not found in time.
Rapai is one of the lucky ones. According to the Trillium Gift of Life network, more than 350 people in Ontario are waiting for a new liver.
The Trillium Gift of Life network says over 1,600 people are awaiting transplants in Ontario. Organs and tissues that can be donated include the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, small bowel, stomach, corneas, heart valves, bone and skin.
You can get a donor card by calling the Trillium Gift of Life Network at 1-800-263-2833. Donor cards can also be found with every driver’s licence renewal and in many doctor’s offices.
By agreeing to be an organ donor, you can help give the gift of life to someone in need. Sign your organ donation card today.
Mourners attend funeral for teen who died during transplant delay
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > State -- Mourners attend funeral for teen who died during transplant delay
By Noaki Schwartz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:35 p.m. December 28, 2007
GLENDALE – At 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan's funeral Friday, no one mentioned the insurance company that denied a potentially life-saving liver transplant and then reversed the decision hours before the girl died.
Instead, mourners remembered Nataline as an optimist, who loved to dance ballet and tap and never complained about the leukemia she was battling. Nataline lost her three-year fight with the bone marrow cancer on Dec. 20.
AdvertisementAmid the flower arrangements at the front of St. Mary's Armenian Apostolate Church was an arrangement of pink and white carnations shaped as a clock with the hands permanently on 5:50 p.m. – the moment Nataline died. A white casket and large photo of the smiling teen whose brown curls were held in place with a silver headband looked out over the crowd.
Janet Saboundjian told the mourners that her niece's upbeat spirit and “sparkling blue eyes” could brighten the darkest of days. Before checking into the hospital, Saboundjian recalled how Nataline made the family take her shopping for the appropriate outfit.
“We have to wear cute clothes at the hospital because I want the nurses to see we have style,” Saboundjian recalled the teen telling her.
Beneath her brave exterior, Nataline had the complex emotions of any young adult. Printed on a pamphlet at the service were paragraphs lifted out of the teen's scribblings about sadness, love and God.
“Sensitive as I am, I lay down in bed and cry, I cry I do not know why, from anger, or happiness, at this moment my life has changed, no wonder I cry day after day...” Nataline wrote at age 14, the same year she was diagnosed with leukemia.
The day before this Thanksgiving, Nataline received a bone marrow transplant. She later developed a complication that caused her liver to fail.
Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. initially refused to approve a liver transplant, calling the surgery an experimental procedure that was not covered by the employer's benefit plan. Nataline was covered under the policy of her father, an automotive technician for Mercedez-Benz of Calabasas, said her father Krikor Sarkisyan.
Four doctors appealed to the insurer to reconsider in a Dec. 11 letter. The doctors said patients in similar situations who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.
After a crowd of nurses, community members and family friends picketed outside Cigna's office in Glendale, the company reversed the decision. But by this time, it was too late and Nataline died.
Cigna, which has revealed little since Nataline's death, said Friday its role was to manage the employer's self-funded benefit plan. Under such arrangements, Cigna is paid an administrative fee to process claims and perform other duties on behalf of the employer, who carries the risk and pays for procedures.
In Nataline's case, Cigna determined the liver transplant was not covered under the employer's plan because it was considered experimental based on consultations with an in-house transplant expert and two independent doctors specializing in organ transplantation and leukemia.
Cigna decided to make an exception for Nataline “given our empathy for the family and the unique circumstances of this situation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kang, Cigna's chief medical officer.
“We volunteered to pay for it out of our own pocket. We decided to ... bear the risk even though we had no obligation to,” Kang said.
Attorney Mark Geragos has said Cigna “maliciously killed” Nataline because it did not want to bear the medical expense of the procedure and aftercare. Geragos said the family will file a lawsuit after the funeral.
On Friday, attendees mourned the loss of an unfulfilled life and recalled the girl who loved the color pink.
Along with traditional black attire, mourners wore touches of pink on scarves, earrings and ties. Some tied pink ribbons around their left arms “so she can be closer to our hearts,” said Raffi Ganoumian, Nataline's cousin.
Outside, friends and family held another cousin who shook as she wept. With her wide blue eyes, brown hair and pink headband, Meghry Achekian, 18, had a faint smile as she recalled that “everyone said we look alike.”
Just a year difference in age, she and Nataline were close and obsessed with the color pink, she said.
“She was a beautiful girl inside and out,” Achekian whispered. “She always had a smile.”
By Noaki Schwartz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:35 p.m. December 28, 2007
GLENDALE – At 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan's funeral Friday, no one mentioned the insurance company that denied a potentially life-saving liver transplant and then reversed the decision hours before the girl died.
Instead, mourners remembered Nataline as an optimist, who loved to dance ballet and tap and never complained about the leukemia she was battling. Nataline lost her three-year fight with the bone marrow cancer on Dec. 20.
AdvertisementAmid the flower arrangements at the front of St. Mary's Armenian Apostolate Church was an arrangement of pink and white carnations shaped as a clock with the hands permanently on 5:50 p.m. – the moment Nataline died. A white casket and large photo of the smiling teen whose brown curls were held in place with a silver headband looked out over the crowd.
Janet Saboundjian told the mourners that her niece's upbeat spirit and “sparkling blue eyes” could brighten the darkest of days. Before checking into the hospital, Saboundjian recalled how Nataline made the family take her shopping for the appropriate outfit.
“We have to wear cute clothes at the hospital because I want the nurses to see we have style,” Saboundjian recalled the teen telling her.
Beneath her brave exterior, Nataline had the complex emotions of any young adult. Printed on a pamphlet at the service were paragraphs lifted out of the teen's scribblings about sadness, love and God.
“Sensitive as I am, I lay down in bed and cry, I cry I do not know why, from anger, or happiness, at this moment my life has changed, no wonder I cry day after day...” Nataline wrote at age 14, the same year she was diagnosed with leukemia.
The day before this Thanksgiving, Nataline received a bone marrow transplant. She later developed a complication that caused her liver to fail.
Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. initially refused to approve a liver transplant, calling the surgery an experimental procedure that was not covered by the employer's benefit plan. Nataline was covered under the policy of her father, an automotive technician for Mercedez-Benz of Calabasas, said her father Krikor Sarkisyan.
Four doctors appealed to the insurer to reconsider in a Dec. 11 letter. The doctors said patients in similar situations who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.
After a crowd of nurses, community members and family friends picketed outside Cigna's office in Glendale, the company reversed the decision. But by this time, it was too late and Nataline died.
Cigna, which has revealed little since Nataline's death, said Friday its role was to manage the employer's self-funded benefit plan. Under such arrangements, Cigna is paid an administrative fee to process claims and perform other duties on behalf of the employer, who carries the risk and pays for procedures.
In Nataline's case, Cigna determined the liver transplant was not covered under the employer's plan because it was considered experimental based on consultations with an in-house transplant expert and two independent doctors specializing in organ transplantation and leukemia.
Cigna decided to make an exception for Nataline “given our empathy for the family and the unique circumstances of this situation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kang, Cigna's chief medical officer.
“We volunteered to pay for it out of our own pocket. We decided to ... bear the risk even though we had no obligation to,” Kang said.
Attorney Mark Geragos has said Cigna “maliciously killed” Nataline because it did not want to bear the medical expense of the procedure and aftercare. Geragos said the family will file a lawsuit after the funeral.
On Friday, attendees mourned the loss of an unfulfilled life and recalled the girl who loved the color pink.
Along with traditional black attire, mourners wore touches of pink on scarves, earrings and ties. Some tied pink ribbons around their left arms “so she can be closer to our hearts,” said Raffi Ganoumian, Nataline's cousin.
Outside, friends and family held another cousin who shook as she wept. With her wide blue eyes, brown hair and pink headband, Meghry Achekian, 18, had a faint smile as she recalled that “everyone said we look alike.”
Just a year difference in age, she and Nataline were close and obsessed with the color pink, she said.
“She was a beautiful girl inside and out,” Achekian whispered. “She always had a smile.”
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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