NEPTUNE CITY, N.J. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Every 20 minutes someone in the U.S. dies on the organ transplant waiting list. Ninety-five percent of Americans are in favor of being an organ donor, but only 54 percent are registered. April is National Donate Life Month— a time designed to highlight the importance of organ donation. Ivanhoe introduces us to one teenager who overcame tremendous odds and is still here today because of a stranger’s life-saving act for a kidney transplant.
Dominic Lipka was an active teen and loved sports but early last year, he started feeling exhausted—all the time.
“Like I couldn’t sit up, like it was that bad,” Dominic told Ivanhoe.
Dominic had to be rushed to the hospital. His system was giving out. Guillermo Hidalgo, MD, a pediatric nephrologist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center said “He was coughing up blood and so he had respiratory insufficiency. He needed to be intubated.”
Dominic’s father, Joseph Lipka explained, “It was just really up in the air, watching him fight for his life.”
Joseph, a single dad, stayed by his son’s side for 42 days. During that time, doctors diagnosed Dominic with lupus, an autoimmune disease.
Joseph said “They say the lupus usually goes after all the cells in your body while your kidneys carry the most cells in your body. So, it usually goes after the kidneys. So, it destroyed his kidneys.”
Dominic needed a kidney transplant. At 15, he was one of the approximately 100,000 Americans in need of a new kidney. Each year, about 22,000 kidney transplants take place— less than one-quarter of the patients in need. Dominic received hemodialysis to stay alive, a procedure that does the work of the kidneys to clean the blood.
“He’s a strong kid,” detailed Joseph.
Dominic said, “I think it’s harder on my family than me.”
At the end of January, the family got the call they had been waiting for. Dominic received a donor organ. The Lipkas take nothing for granted.
“Be thankful for every day you get that you’re healthy and your feet hit the ground in the morning,” Joseph shared.
Dominick’s doctors say he is recovering and his energy levels are back to normal. By the end of April, they say he should be able to return to normal activities, including baseball. He will need to take anti-rejection medications that also control his lupus for the rest of his life. For people who are not registered as an organ donor, and are interested in doing so, you can register in person at your local driver’s licensing center or online at www.organdonor.gov.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor; and Kirk Manson, Videographer
Sources:
https://www.donornetworkwest.org/organ-donation-facts-statistics/
https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up
DOMINIC’S KIDNEY TRANSPLANT JOURNEY
REPORT #2947
BACKGROUND: According to Donate Life America, more than 100,000 people are waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. Even the largest football stadium in the U.S. could not fit the number of patients on the national transplant waiting list. Eighty-five percent of patients waiting are in need of a kidney and 20 people die every day on average because an organ is not available in time. Just one donor can save up to 8 lives through organ donation and heal as many as 75 through tissue donation.
(Source: https://www.donatelife.net/statistics/
https://www.donornetworkwest.org/organ-donation-facts-statistics/)
DIAGNOSIS: Acute kidney failure occurs when your kidneys suddenly become unable to filter waste products from your blood. When your kidneys lose their filtering ability, dangerous levels of wastes may accumulate, and your blood’s chemical makeup may get out of balance. Signs and symptoms of acute kidney failure may include decreased urine output, although occasionally urine output remains normal, fluid retention, causing swelling in your legs, ankles or feet, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, and chest pain or pressure. Sometimes acute kidney failure causes no signs or symptoms and is detected through lab tests done for another reason.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-failure/symptoms-causes/syc-20369048
NEW REGULATIONS: In a first-of-its-kind surgery, a 57-year-old patient with terminal heart disease received a successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart and was still doing well three days later. It was the only currently available option for the patient. The historic surgery was conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) faculty at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), together known as the University of Maryland Medicine. This organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body. The patient, David Bennett, a Maryland resident, is being carefully monitored over the next days and weeks to determine whether the transplant provides lifesaving benefits. He had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at UMMC as well as at several other leading transplant centers that reviewed his medical records. Two months after the surgery, Bennett did pass away. However, the surgery is still considered a significant step forward, because the pig’s heart was not immediately rejected and continued to function for well over a month, passing a critical milestone for transplant patients.
(Source: https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/news/2022/University-of-Maryland-School-of-Medicine-Faculty-Scientists-and-Clinicians-Perform-Historic-First-Successful-Transplant-of-Porcine-Heart-into-Adult-Human-with-End-Stage-Heart-Disease.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/health/heart-transplant-pig-bennett.html)
* For More Information, Contact:
Edna Arguello
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