News & Events: Kidney Transplant

Survivor on the Margins I first noticed Richard on a Wednesday before my 8am lecture, sitting in a corner of the nursing building's food court. Or rather, it was the first time I really noticed him, because I realized I had seen him sitting there before, looking ahead contentedly with his hands folded on the table in front of him. Richard, it turns out, is a historic patient at UCSF; one of the first people worldwide to receive a kidney transplant. Born with renal failure in the early 1960s, Richard received his transplant at UCSF in 1971 at age ten, at a time when such procedures were [...]

NapaValleyRegister.com reports on the story of Harrison Schaufer, the recipient of a donor kidney at 22 months old, and his mother Annelise, his living donor. A patient at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco since birth, Harrison, and his mother have attended the annual UCSF Pediatric Transplant Picnic annually. This year Harrison was asked to speak at the event. Harrison Schaufel never shies away from the spotlight, so when he was invited to give a speech about his experiences as a kidney transplant recipient, he couldn't refuse. Schaufel's story is nothing short of [...]

UCSF News reports on a just published study in the The New England Journal of Medicine in which mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors was found to significantly reduce delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients compared with normal body temperature. The lead author of the study is Claus Niemann, MD, Professor of Anesthesia and Surgery at UCSF, and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab. The findings in the study could lead to an increase in the availability of kidneys for transplant. Mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors significantly reduces delayed graft [...]

KGO ABC 7 News reports on Sarah Brewster's gift of a kidney to her husband, Jesse Brewster, the latter who suffers from polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Jesse received the kidney in an a living donor kidney transplant performed by UCSF transplant surgeons in mid-February, 2015 at UCSF Medical Center. A Bay Area musician is about to get a sweet gift for Valentine's Day. Jesse Brewster has been dealing with a kidney illness for 20 years and he's about to get some help from an unexpected source. When asked if she was worried about how to take care of the one she loves, Sarah Brewster [...]

The Contra Costa Times reports on the heartrending story of Chris Schroeder (pictured center), who received a donated kidney at age 50 from his wife, and then eight years later after the transplant failed, a second donated kidney from his son. Mr. Schroeder underwent successful surgery at UCSF Medical Center in December 2014 to have the transplanted kidney implanted. His UCSF nephrologist, Flavio Vincenti, M.D.  said the rejection of the first kidney was "somewhat uncommon," and had been complicated by a rare disease "C1q nephropathy" that attacked his remaining kidney. WALNUT CREEK -- [...]

In excess of 90,000 people are on the waiting list for kidney transplants, fewer than 17,000 receive one each year, and about 4,500 die on the waiting list. Even where a relative or friend is willing to donate a kidney, the kidney may not be a biological match. To address this problem, paired kidney exchange programs were created. Although it has been more than a decade since the first paired kidney exchange took place in the US, there is still no uniform system for these exchanges. Sandy Feng, M.D., Ph.D., a transplant surgeon at UCSF, is currently organizing the Consensus Conference on [...]

UCSF News reports on the award of a $2 million grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to a team led by Claus Niemann, MD, Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab to improve outcomes in organ donor transplantation.  The grant was awarded to Niemann and his collaborators including John Feiner, MD, as well as Ryutaro Hirose, MD, and John Roberts, MD, chief of the UCSF Transplant Service. Also collaborating on the project are the California Transplant Donor Network and Darren [...]

San Francisco International Film Festival, Thirteen years ago, Pat Spurgeon of the indie pop band Rogue Wave received a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, just as the band started to take off, the kidney began to fail. The feature documentary "D Tour" chronicles Pat's experience as a UCSF kidney patient  including his search for a living organ donor. The film also features Dr. Sang-Mo Kang of the UCSF Division of Transplantation, the surgeon who took care of Pat.  * Image of Pat Spurgeon courtesy of "The independent, SF"  and provided under a creative commons attribution license.