Saturday, February 22, 2003Aack! My blog is gone! :)I had to type the emoticon into the title manually, because it's impossible to do so using the default template. However, the title itself is inspired by one of Whim's earlier Writing Prompts: My Blog Is Gone. I have to wonder if I'm to blame for that. I'll grant that this blog was hot while the... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 10:09 PM Comments (2) (link) Rest in peace, JesicaJesica Santillan was declared dead, using neurological criteria commonly called "brain death," at 1:25 PM Eastern Standard Time. Her life support was withdrawn at approximately 5 PM this afternoon. It is unclear at this time whether the Santillan family wanted the doctors to do what is called... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 6:00 PM Comments (0) (link) Minority viewsIt is almost axiomatic in the transplant community that recipients seek some sort of financial assistance in order to get their transplants. This is because the operation is expensive, and assumed to be beyond the means of the average person. Financial assistance has been available for kidney... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 9:14 AM Comments (0) (link) Myths and realityTransWeb, a popular transplantation-related site, talks about some of the more popular myths of transplantation. One of those myths is exemplified by the case of former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey. He had a disease called amyloidosis, if memory serves correctly, and ended up needing a heart-liver... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 8:21 AM Comments (0) (link) Friday, February 21, 2003Brain damage "irreversible"The latest news on Jesica Santillan is that her brain damage - from cerebral edema, plus previously-unannounced hemorrhaging - is "severe and irreversible." Doctors feel that this is caused by all that time she spent on life support before her second transplant. Put plainly, it doesn't look good. Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 2:07 PM Comments (0) (link) Wired.com article of interest: The ignored patient in the donation triangleWired.com has an interesting article in this month's edition, about the ignored patient in the organ-donation triangle: the cadaveric donor. Be forewarned, though - it's an MA article, in the sense that it gets into some pretty gruesome stuff. It isn't an article for the weak of stomach or the more... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 12:30 PM Comments (0) (link) Jesica Santillan in "grave" conditionThis is one of those things I'm kicking myself about - just as soon as I declare a "holiday" to treat what is apparently a nasty cold with a dollop of laryngitis, this story comes across the wire. Jesica Santillan is described as being in "grave" condition today, 24 hours after she received a second... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 12:22 PM Comments (0) (link) Thursday, February 20, 2003Remember the one about aluminum pull-tabs buying dialysis time?This is one of those urban legends that's been floating around since before I developed renal insufficiency. The legend goes that for every aluminum pull-tab from a soda can (or empty cigarette pack), a certain number of minutes of dialysis time could be bought for a needy patients. Frankly, if... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 1:41 PM Comments (0) (link) Jesica gets a second chanceJesica Santillan, who received donor organs which were mismatched, finally got a heart and lungs which came from someone of her blood type. These organs were found at 1 AM Eastern Standard Time this morning, and she is awaiting a second transplant procedure as I type. (Due to the delicacy of lung... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 6:15 AM Comments (0) (link) Wednesday, February 19, 2003Oh, quit KIDNEYING around, alreadyKidneys for sale? Illegally? Wanna bet? Surely you must be - ahem - kidneying around. I would be, but for one major problem - it's an urban legend, pure and simple. Click on the word "kidney" in the previous paragraph and you will be taken to a Dutch urban-legend site containing some information on... Sign in to see full entry.posted by kidnykid at 6:34 PM Comments (0) (link) |
About this BlogThis was originally intended to be written during Organ Donor Awareness Week only, but I felt like writing about transplant-related issues at other times of the year.
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