Rare 6-way kidney transplant underway at San Francisco hospital
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, March 6, 2015, 11:14 AM
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LEAH MILLIS/APKidney donor Zully Broussard (l.) hugs her longtime friend Pam Nelson after a media conference at California Pacific Medical Center on Wednesday.
Six people are getting a new chance at life after their loved ones offered to donate their kidneys to strangers in a rare six-way transplant.
12 people — six donors and six recipients — between the ages of 24 and 70 are undergoing surgery for the two-day procedure at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center, spokesman Dean Fryer said. The first three transplants were successfully performed Thursday and three more are scheduled for Friday.
The transplant chain is considered the largest surgery of its kind in the region.
Such a swap occurs when living donors are not genetically compatible with loved ones in need of new kidneys. The donors give their organs to strangers so that their friends or relatives can be matched with donors in the same similar situation.
This chain was set off by Zully Broussard, 55, when she tried to donate a kidney to a friend and discovered she was not a match. She said she understands the importance of helping people in poor health after losing her son and husband to cancer.
"I know what it feels like to want an extra day," she said.
But she did not expect that her gift would help extend time for five more families, mostly from the Bay Area.
The chain, including three pairs of parents and children, a pair of siblings and a pair of in-laws, were matched using a computer program comparing genetic profiles, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The operations, which combined could take 36 hours, require the aid of nearly 60 staff members, including five surgeons.
"In fact one of the obstacles we had to overcome is having enough sets of surgical instruments to do them all at the same time," transplant surgeon William Bry told KPIX-TV.
Broussard was one of six people who underwent surgery Thursday, hospital spokesman Dean Fryer said. Her surgery took an hour and a half, less time than scheduled, because she is healthy.
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Dr. Bill Bry (c.) speaks during a media conference beside (from l.) Dr. Robert Osorio, Dr. Steven Katznelson and kidney donor Zully Broussard. Bry said the 'kidney paired donations' are occurring thanks to a woman who started a chain of donations and a computer program that matches donors to recipients.
Kidney swaps have become more common, thanks to new pairing software and transplant center alliances. Transplant chains are considered the best odds of receiving a live-donor transplant, which often offer the best chances for survival.
Twelve people die a day waiting for a new kidney as more than 100,000 people are on the list for kidney transplants, the National Kidney Foundation said. Less than 17,000 kidney transplants are performed every year in the nation.
The six-way transplant is by no means the most complicated swap performed in the U.S. In 2001, Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital performed a swap with a whopping 30 donor-recipient pairs.
