Bridgett Kolls is a fan of the Chicago Cubs. Kolls, 23, also needed a new kidney.
Thomas Alessio, 32, is a fan of the Chicago White Sox, so you wouldn’t think that this would be a match made in transplant heaven. Right.
Well, you would be wrong.
In May 2019, Kolls went to a Cubs game and took along a poster on which was printed “This li’l Cubs fan needs a kidney” and a phone number.
The Cubs’ social media team took her photo and put it on Twitter, which is where Alessio saw it.
The rest, as they say, is transplant history.
Genevieve Bookwalter of the Chicago Tribune has the complete story right here. It’s a great read, especially if you are in need of a transplant or are thinking of being a live donor.
There have been a couple of really interesting developments of late in the world of kidney transplants. . . . Surgeons at the University of Illinois Hospital-Chicago have performed what a news release describes as “the world’s first robotic-assisted double-kidney removal followed immediately by a living-donor kidney transplant in a patient with severe polycystic kidney disease.” The surgery was performed on Christopher Adamsick, 50, of Yorkville, Ill., who had both of his diseased kidneys removed and a donor kidney transplanted. . . . Dr. Pier Giulianotti, the lead surgeon, called it “a first-of-its-kind procedure that normally requires open, invasive surgery and a very large incision.” . . . That story is right here.
Meanwhile, in the Nevada desert, two September drone flights successfully delivered human organs for transplant. . . . Yahoo News reports that “one of the flights was the longest organ delivery flight on an unmanned aircraft ever.” . . . One drone flight delivered corneas, with the other moving a kidney. . . . If you are interested in how this all was put together and how the flights went, there are photos and more right here.
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
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