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Organ Donation and Living Donation Options for Transplant Patients

Feb 3, 2023 | Kristin Eggebraaten | @keggebraaten | Comments (3)

Dr. Julie Heimbach is a liver transplant surgeon and the Director of Transplant at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Recently, she talked to Minnesota Monthly about organ donation and specifically, living donation.

Living donation is a necessary part of being able to transplant nearly 43,000 people in the U.S. in 2022. We are so thankful to our deceased donors and their families for their gifts. However, even with their generosity, there’s still 1000s of patients waiting for organ transplant. Without living donors stepping up to fill the gap, many patients would die waiting for their gift of life.

Learn more about organ donation and find answers to the questions that many of us have in this year’s article by Minnesota Monthly.

Have you donated an organ to a loved one? What questions did you have prior to donation?

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Interested in more newsfeed posts like this? Go to the Transplant blog.

surreal name | @sofaramnotdead | Feb 12 4:40pm

What does Mayo think about xenotransplantation? I know that hospitals that are doing research with pigs keep it quiet, for various reasons.

Obviously, people who are on transplant waiting lists at Mayo, and many other places, sometimes unfortunately pass away before a donor is found.

Does Mayo always mention that xenotransplantation is an option, if not at Mayo, then at another hospital? I realize that right now, it's not considered a "real" option. 😀

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Cheryl, Volunteer Mentor | @cehunt57 | Feb 12 7:16pm

I have Stage 4 CKD. I’ve been looking for a living kidney donor since 2008 (to no avail). I remember when I was in junior high or high school a dying kid somewhere got a baboon heart transplant and survived about a month. This was sensational news at the time. I’m ( nearly typed “I ham …”, Freudian slip?) 67 years old now and I think I’d be grateful for a pig kidney!

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Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 15 5:26pm
In reply to @sofaramnotdead "What does Mayo think about xenotransplantation? I know that hospitals that are doing research with pigs..." + (show)
@sofaramnotdead

What does Mayo think about xenotransplantation? I know that hospitals that are doing research with pigs keep it quiet, for various reasons.

Obviously, people who are on transplant waiting lists at Mayo, and many other places, sometimes unfortunately pass away before a donor is found.

Does Mayo always mention that xenotransplantation is an option, if not at Mayo, then at another hospital? I realize that right now, it's not considered a "real" option. 😀

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@sofaramnotdead, check out this podcast.

Xenotransplantation and Regenerative Medicine https://precisionpod.podbean.com/e/xenotransplantation-and-regenerative-medicine/

Cathy Wurzer, a broadcast journalist from Minnesota Public Radio interviews two noted experts in regenerative therapeutics and xenotransplantation (transplanting organs between members of different species) and how these two fields are related. Learn more from these experts as they discuss innovations, future opportunities, challenges, ethical and legal issues, and the public’s perception of these new therapies.

Guests are:
- Julie Allickson, Ph.D., the Michael S. and Mary Sue Shannon Family Director for Regenerative Medicine and the Otto Bremer Trust Director of Biomanufacturing and Product Development in the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics

- Robert Montgomery, M.D., Ph.D., chair Department of Surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute

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