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African Americans are almost four times more likely to need a transplant due to kidney failure, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Lisa Hampton, 53, has lupus, which caused her kidneys to shut down. The Wardell, Missouri native has been on dialysis since 2018.
“I got on the waiting list for a kidney transplant and then I was taken off it because I had triple bypass surgery,” she said. “I was put back on the list after everything had settled, and I think it was not even a month and they called for my transplant.”
Hampton received her new kidney at SSM SLU Hospital on January 29, and recovered at Mid-America Transplant’s Family House in St. Louis.
“I had a heart attack after maybe about a week or so after the transplant, and then my blood pressure was fluctuating up and down,” she said, recounting the recovery process she experienced. “In the last couple weeks or so, I’ve been great, my kidneys work perfectly, and they’re doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Hampton spoke highly of her support system, her husband of 30 years, staying by her side and taking care of her through this process.
Dr. Henry Randall is a liver, kidney & pancreas transplant & HPB surgeon at SSM Health/ St. Louis University. He’s a Professor of Surgery & Executive Director of the SSM Health Center for Abdominal Transplantation, Division Chief and Surgical Director of Liver and Kidney Transplantation.
“It’s pretty common, it’s like the rest of the U.S. where a number of African Americans or Blacks are on the transplant waiting list, and all of that depends on the population within the city, but here in St. Louis, roughly about 40% African Americans occupy the list for waiting for an organ for transplant,” he said.
According to Dr. Randall, there is a nationwide organ shortage for transplants, which includes kidneys.
“It’s a problem in all populations, not just African Americans, and the way it works is like not all African Americans are matched with African Americans; it’s blood,” he said. “You may not receive an organ donor from the same ethnic group that you belong to, but it’s blood type group.”
Since receiving a kidney transplant is dependent upon blood type, there are different wait times for individuals who need a new organ.
“Since individuals with O positive have the most common blood type, they tend to wait the longest; those in this group tend to wait between four and five years, while those in blood group A wait somewhere between three and five years,” the surgeon said.
Dr. Randall talked about how Lisa Hampton was a part of the kidney paired exchange program, which allowed her to receive a kidney transplant sooner.
“In a kidney paired exchange, it’s like an organ swap,” he said. “Let’s say you and I are a pair where we are somehow related, either brother or sister, or father and son, or something like that, but I’m not blood type compatible with you, then what I would do is I would swap with another recipient who I could donate to from a blood type compatibility and then that person’s donor may not be compatible with them, so we would do a swap where I would donate to that recipient and then that person’s donor would donate to you.”
For more information about kidney paired donation or kidney exchange programs, talk to your transplant hospital.
According to Dr. Randall, the most common causes of kidney failure are diabetes and hypertension, and then the combination of diabetes and hypertension. However, a doctor’s commitment to their patient can also affect their health outcomes.
“There are what I call the usual or standard reasons for kidney failure, like being referred to dialysis. Some of that has to do with the kidney doctor’s commitment to patients and their kidney disease. For instance, if I’m a kidney specialist and my income is predicated on how many people I dialyze, then I actually lose money by referring people to transplant, so that had been an impediment in the past, and it’s also a racist practice,” he said.
Dr. Randall talked about his top two concerns when it comes to Black patients who suffer from kidney disease. One being catching it in time to treat it effectively.
“To even out the disparity, now you have to refer patients once they reach what’s called ‘chronic kidney disease,’ kidney stage three, which means that they’re referred earlier in the process,” he said. “If they do progress to actual kidney disease, they’re kind of plugged in early, so that’s one concern.”
The doctor’s other concern is how most Black patients are categorized as having hypertension as the cause of their kidney failure, and that may not necessarily be the case.
“We have a lot of genetic studies in place right now to look at the actual causes of kidney failure because hypertension may actually be a secondary diagnosis as opposed to primary diagnosis,” Dr. Randall said. “We want to identify what those primary diagnoses are and then discern what’s hypertension and the hypertension being either primary or secondary cause of kidney.”
Lastly, one solution to the organ shortage is building the awareness of people becoming organ donors.
“We want people to identify themselves as wanting to donate to the transplant list or recipient list,” Dr. Randall said. “A lot of people are afraid of that because let’s say if I’m involved in an automobile accident, people assume that there’s some sort of conspiracy where trauma doctors are in cahoots with transplant teams to let people die and then take their organs.”
It is a popular myth that physicians will not treat you if you are dying and list yourself as an organ donor, which is constantly being dispelled by medical professionals.
“No one’s going to allow you to die to donate your organs,” Dr. Randall said. “It’s a safe process, and there’s a tremendous need for organ donors.”
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