A transplant first in Northeastern Pennsylvania

[okarol]

 12:40 AM
A transplant first
Moosic man receives kidney from niece at Geisinger Wyoming Valley in first living donor transplant in area.

SHERRY LONG slong@timesleader.com

PLAINS TWP. – Jerry Collins carries a part of his niece, Cheryl LaVeglia, with him everywhere he goes.

Collins became the first person to receive a living donor transplant in Northeastern Pennsylvania on April 17, when he received one of LaVeglia’s kidneys during a six-hour operation at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center.

Geisinger Wyoming Valley is the only hospital in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area offering living kidney transplants. Otherwise, patients would have to travel to Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Danville for the procedure.

Transplants are nothing new. But the focus is now on encouraging people to become living donors instead of waiting until they are declared legally brain dead.

With 80,000 people across the United States waiting for a kidney transplant, the bean-shaped organ is the most needed organ in transplants, said Dr. Manish Gupta, a transplant surgeon with Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

“Because most of us have two kidneys, we have the ability to be a donor to a loved one or a friend without having ill consequences in the long-haul,” he said. “People can live with one kidney barring any unforeseen circumstances, normally.”

Kidney donations from living donors would cut down on the normal five-to-six-year period most patients wait to receive a kidney.

Gupta participated in the historic operation by removing one of LaVeglia’s kidneys so it could be transplanted into Collins.

Dr. Chintalapati Varma, director of transplantation surgery at Geisinger Wyoming Valley, handled Collins’ operation.

Patients receiving a kidney from a living donor often have a better quality of life than patients’ receiving a kidney from a brain-dead donor. A patient’s best source for an acceptable donor is from within their immediate or extended family.

“Live-donor kidneys last longer, they perform better and there is less risk of rejection with regards of kidney transplants, as opposed to getting a kidney from a person who is brain-dead,” Varma said.

Collins, 61, began undergoing daily dialysis treatments two years ago in his Moosic home.

LaVeglia, 47, was never worried about the surgery. She knew what to expect. She’s worked with dialysis patients for 23 years as a nurse in Stony Brook, N.Y.

After returning to work, one of her dialysis patients asked her if she felt physically different after donating the kidney.

“The benefits always outweigh the negative parts of it. I don’t feel any different at all. It’s a big fear. People don’t realize they can be a donor and it’s not as fearful as they think.”
For more information:

Gift of Life Donor Program

1-800-DONORS-1 (1-800-366-6771)

www.donors1.org or www.DonateLife-PA.org

401 N. Third Ave.

Philadelphia, PA 19123-4101

http://www.timesleader.com/news/20080501_01Geisinger_ART.html