Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Steve Jobs appears at Apple event - Sep. 9, 2009

Steve Jobs appears at Apple event - Sep. 9, 2009
Breakthrunow congratulations Steve Jobs .....we all need to consider the Gift of Life by considering organ donations..

Apple Announcement 9/9/09: Live Blog - Gearlog

Apple Announcement 9/9/09: Live Blog - Gearlog: "1:05: 'I now have the liver of a mid-20's person who died in a car crash and I wouldn't be here without that person's generosity--I hope we all become organ donors....I'd like to thanks Tim Cook for running the show in my absence. So, I'm vertical and back at Apple.'"

Golden girl Catherine powers to gong glory: Five-medal haul at transplant games - Halifax Today

Golden girl Catherine powers to gong glory: Five-medal haul at transplant games - Halifax Today
update by Breakthrunow.

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Associated Press: Heart transplant recipient climbs 10 Teton peaks

Heart transplant recipient climbs 10 Teton peaks

By MEAD GRUVER (AP) – Aug 24, 2009

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Heart transplant recipient Kelly Perkins said she was already back to her fitness routine just two days after climbing 10 peaks in western Wyoming's famous Teton Range.

Perkins made the series of climbs called the Grand Traverse last week to spread the word that people can be active after undergoing transplants — a message she hopes will encourage more people to be organ donors.

"You don't have to be 100 percent but you can forge along and accomplish some great things," Perkins, 47, said Monday in a phone interview from her home in Laguna Niguel, Calif. "I'm amazed that my body can respond like it does."

Perkins and her husband, Craig Perkins, started climbing Wednesday, conquering both Teewinot Mountain (12,325 feet) and Mount Owen (12,928 feet) while being led by two guides.

On Thursday, the group hiked to the Lower Saddle between Grand Teton and Middle Teton. There, they met up with a team of six cardiac rehabilitation nurses from Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Together, they climbed Grand Teton (13,776 feet) Friday. While the nurses headed home, the Perkinses and guides went on to climb Middle Teton (12,804 feet).

They finished Saturday after climbing South Teton (12,514 feet) and five smaller peaks: the Ice Cream Cone, Gilkey Tower, Spalding Peak, Cloudveil Dome and Nez Perce Peak.

Local mountain guides say only about half those who attempt the Grand Traverse succeed, usually due to bad weather. The Perkinses lucked out: Rain socked in the Tetons just before and just after their trek. The sun was out for nearly all of their expedition.

Knocking off so many mountains in four days required as much as 16 hours of hiking, boulder scrambling and technical climbing each day, Perkins said.

"There were times when I was just so out of breath, and I would just have to stop often. It was difficult. But I got through it," she said.

On Monday, Perkins reported that she was back to the ashtanga yoga routine that keeps her fit.

The 5-foot-2, 100-pound Perkins has climbed several of the world's well-known peaks since falling ill with a racing heartbeat in 1992 and undergoing a heart transplant in 1995. They include the Matterhorn in Switzerland, Mount Fuji in Japan, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and, last year, the face of Half Dome in Yosemite.

The cardiac rehabilitation nurses accompanied Perkins up Grand Teton not just to promote her cause, but also to see how she does it. One of the nurses, Mary Duncan, said confronting the mental challenge of climbing a mountain is a lesson she has taken back to the hospital.

"We always tell our patients, 'It's a day at a time — just take it a day at a time,'" Duncan said. "I can liken climbing to that because it's just one pitch at a time, one rope length at a time."

For Perkins, one of the biggest challenges of climbing is how her heart takes a long time to get moving in response to physical activity — typical for heart transplant recipients.

Climbing guide Kevin Mahoney, with Jackson Hole-based Exum Mountain Guides, said Perkins seemed to have less trouble climbing than with stops and starts while hiking and scrambling.

"The more technical it got, the easier it was for her," she said.

He said Perkins did well, soldiering on through difficult situations.

"I was just really impressed with her ability to just always be positive with anything," she said. "She definitely put a smile on her face even though you know it was hard work for her."

Heart Transplant Survivor Climbs Ten Teton Peaks In Four Days
WFMY News 2 - Aug 25, 2009
Woman With Heart Transplant Climbs Teton Grand Traverse
About - News & Issues - Aug 25, 2009
Heart transplant recipient climbs 10 Teton peaks
The Associated Press - Aug 24, 2009
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Brother rescues brother with bone marrow transplant - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

Brother rescues brother with bone marrow transplant

Travis Washington is sickle-cell free after doctors performed a bone marrow transplant in Miami last month. His brother, Trevis, was the donor.

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Trevis Washington, left, kneels next to brother Travis, for whom he donated bone marrow. Travis is now well on the way to recovery, doctors say.

C.W. GRIFFIN / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA

tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

As a child, Trevis Washington had to watch helplessly as his big brother Travis battled sickle cell anemia -- a disease that caused frequent pain, two strokes and a rare brain disorder.

When Trevis learned that of the five brothers and possible donors he was the one possible match for a bone marrow transplant that could cure Travis' sickle cell disease, he was ecstatic.

``I was very excited just to give him a new chance,'' said 17-year-old Trevis (pronounced Tray-vis). ``I didn't want him to have to go through that.''

After spending most of his 18 years juggling hospital visits, monthly blood transfusions and physical therapy, Travis underwent a bone marrow transplant at Holtz Children's Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami last month.

Breakthrunow - Events

Breakthrunow - Events
Gift of life relay coming up soon.....support if you can.
Thanks

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Deborah Calla: What My Late Husband's Organ Transplant Taught Me About the Health Industry

Deborah Calla: What My Late Husband's Organ Transplant Taught Me About the Health Industry:

CNN is investigating organ trafficking in this country and abroad. Here is a video interview with an Israeli organ broker."

Donor says he got thousands for his kidney - CNN.com

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Four years ago, a young, cash-starved Israeli answered an ad in a newspaper for a kidney donor.

"I decided I wanted to make a positive change in my life and do something different," Nick Rosen told CNN. "So I saw an ad in the paper and it said, 'Kidney Donor Wanted.' And called the ad in the paper, and they asked me my blood type."

Ultimately, Rosen flew to New York and underwent surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center to remove one of his two healthy kidneys.

"Let's say I donated a kidney and received compensation," he said.

Reason for hope - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com

Advances in medicine have outpaced public policy and public understanding about kidney transplants, creating both hope and frustration.

Jim and Rosemary Stuttle feel both.

They turned to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after learning they could not proceed with a living kidney transplant at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria because of a switch in their insurance coverage.

China to launch nationwide organ donation system -- latimes.com

China to launch nationwide organ donation system

Most transplanted organs have come from executed prisoners, who get treatments to make them more suitable donors before they are put to death. Officials now say the practice is improper.