Two hard-to-find transplant patients 400 kilometers away began the year 2024 with a bright new hope for a long and healthy life, thanks to the collaboration of two texas hospitals.
The Solid Organ Transplant Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and the University Health Transplant Institute in San Antonio worked together to find compatible living kidney donors for their failing patients.
In Dallas, Jorge Méndez, 50, foreman of an automotive shop, needed a life-saving transplant.
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Mendez was on dialysis, which has a significant impact not only on a person’s daily quality of life, but also on long-term health.
According to his doctor, it was important for him to find a transplant before he became too sick for the procedure.
Rebecca Warden, second from left, volunteered to donate a kidney to her mother, Ann Winer, 71, of San Antonio, far left. And Svetlana Balmeo Stockdale, 28 (far right), volunteered to donate a kidney to her co-worker, Jorge Mendez, 50, who was standing next to her. (University Health/UT Southwestern)
Mendez’s co-worker, Svetlana Balmeo Stockdale, 28, offered to donate a kidney to her friend, but unfortunately she was not a match.
Meanwhile, 250 miles away in San Antonio, 71-year-old Ann Winer also urgently needed a kidney transplant.
He was on dialysis after waiting almost two years for a kidney donor.
Winer’s biggest obstacle was that he had unusual antibodies that made it very difficult for him to match a donor, his doctors said.
“A patient’s access to a life-saving transplant should not be limited by geographic or organizational boundaries.”
Winer’s daughter, Rebecca Warden, wanted to donate a kidney, but was not a match.
“Winer likely would have weakened over time and his condition would have worsened,” Parsia Vagefi, MD, a UT Southwestern transplant surgeon who led the surgical team in Dallas, told Fox News Digital.
“He said he had almost given up hope of receiving a transplant.”
Rebecca Warden, left, volunteered to donate a kidney to her mother, Ann Winer, 71, of San Antonio, right. However, Warden was not a match, so Winer’s medical team in San Antonio collaborated with another team in Dallas to find a donor exchange for their respective patients. (University Health)
Leaders from both institutions began working together to find matches outside their local transplant networks.
After learning she was not a match for her friend, Stockdale, Mendez’s intended donor, received a surprising phone call.
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“Shortly after I was told my kidney was not a match, UT Southwestern called me and said, ‘You can’t donate to Jorge, but we can do an exchange with someone else,'” he said in a statement. to Fox News Digital.
As it turned out, Stockdale was a match for Winer, San Diego’s grandmother, and Warden, who intended to make a donation to his mother, was a match for Mendez.
Putting the impressive plan into action
Medical teams in Dallas and San Antonio initiated plans for a donor exchange for their respective patients.
“(After finding the matches), we started discussing, ‘When would we start the surgeries? How would we transport the organs? How would the organs be tracked?'” said Dr. Elizabeth Thomas, a transplant surgeon at University Health who led the study. transplant team in San Antonio, in a comment sent to Fox News Digital.
Jorge Mendez, 50, received a replacement for his failing kidney after medical teams in San Antonio and Dallas searched beyond their own networks for compatible living donors for their patients. At right, with him and a matching yellow scrubs, Svetlana Balmeo Stockdale, 28, walks with Mendez after the two underwent surgery at UT Southwestern in Dallas. (UT Southwestern)
Through “carefully choreographed surgical programs and chartered flights,” transplant teams ensured that donated organs were transported safely and transplanted as quickly as possible, according to a statement from the hospitals.
“(The transport) could be followed minute by minute on the plane by a label that was on the box that was used to transport (the kidneys),” Thomas said.
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“It’s important because we want to keep the time the organ is outside the body without blood to a minimum.”
On August 31, 2023, after a day of “superbly timed surgeries and close coordination,” according to the hospitals, Winer and Mendez received the new, functional kidneys they needed to save their lives.
On August 31, 2023, after a day of “superbly timed surgeries and close coordination,” according to the hospitals, Winer and Mendez received the new, functional kidneys they needed to save their lives. (UT Southwestern/University Health)
“There are various ways to do the exchanges and various reasons to do it… It never goes out of style,” Dr. Vagefi told Fox News Digital.
Only a quarter of transplants performed at UT Southwestern are from living donors, but Vagefi said he hopes to expand that number as living kidney donations last longer for recipients.
“It’s really great to participate in it and form a collaboration with others who are working towards the same mission but in a different city,” he said. “We cross geographic borders to help these families.”
Grateful for new hope
Due to the life-saving transplantMendez was able to hug her new granddaughter when the baby was born in January.
“My eyes filled with tears as I hugged her,” he said in a statement. “Now I can live a little longer to spend time with her.”
He later wrote to his donor: “Thank you very much. I owe you the world.”
“I don’t think of it as saving someone’s life; I think of it as giving Jorge’s family members more time with him.”
“I felt like they would never find a donor for me, but they found one,” Winer said.
In a card he sent to his Dallas donor, he wrote: “I will never be able to repay you.”
Stockdale, who intended to donate to her friend Mendez, shared what being a donor means to her in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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“I don’t look at it like I’m saving someone’s life,” he said. “I think it’s like giving Jorge’s family members more time with him.”
“(For Winer), anything that you haven’t accomplished yet in life that you ultimately want to do, I hope you can do it. Life is too short to not live your wildest dreams.”
Winer, the retired nurse anesthetist, later wrote a letter to Stockdale thanking him for the kidney.
According to the hospitals, through “carefully choreographed surgical programs and chartered flights,” transplant teams ensured that donated organs were transported safely and transplanted as quickly as possible. (UT Southwestern/University Health)
“Thank you for bringing me back to life,” he wrote.
“I thought I would never get a transplant with my strange antibodies, and then you came along. Bless you.”
Warden, Winer’s daughter who had intended to donate to her mother but agreed to donate to Mendez in exchange for her mother receiving a transplant, also expressed gratitude.
Parsia Vagefi, MD, is the UT Southwestern transplant surgeon who led the surgical team in Dallas. (UT Southwestern)
“At the end of the day, I’m happy I was able to help two people and not just one,” he said in a statement.
Today, both transplant recipients are doing well.
Winer has returned to work part-time as a nurse anesthetist and plans to retire at the end of July.
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Méndez has also returned to work. “I feel great,” she said.
Scott Bennett, associate vice president of the Solid Organ Transplant Program at UT Southwestern, said in a news release that “a patient’s access to a life-saving transplant should not be limited by geographic or organizational boundaries.”
UT Southwestern’s Dr. Parsia Vagefi led the surgical team in Dallas that collaborated with University Health in San Antonio to save two patients with kidney failure. (UT Southwestern)
“It was gratifying to see the collective spirit of two highly regarded programs collaborate to make this happen,” he added.
The kidney is the organ with the greatest demand for transplant.
TO Healthy person They can live a full life after donating one of their two kidneys, according to experts.
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The average life expectancy of a person on dialysis is five to 10 years, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
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