Kidney Transplanted Twice in Span of Two Weeks

A team of doctors at a Chicago hospital have managed to transplant a kidney twice in span of just two weeks after the initial surgery started to show signs of complications. Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital initially conducted the transplant surgery on Ray Fearing, 27, with the kidney donated by his sister. Ray was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulousclerosis (FSGS) which ultimately could have led to kidney failure.

While there were no problems soon after the surgery, doctors began to notice that the illness started to come back aggressively. Dr Lorenzo Gallon revealed that the team decided to remove the kidney soon after complications arose in order to prevent Ray’s condition from deteriorating further.

Doctors analyzed the kidney and came to the conclusion that it could be used in another patient even though there was some damage. “Our sense was this was due to something in the circulation the bloodstream of the first transplant recipient. When we saw the kidney was slowly being destroyed, but on biopsy the kidney looked like it could work for someone else, that's when we hatched the idea”, Dr Joseph Leventhal said.

Indiana resident Erwin Gomez became the recipient of the kidney after doctors consulted Ray and gave him the choice of either allowing it to be used in another patient or just discard it. Ray says that though it was not his time, he is happy that the kidney has been used to save the life of another patient.

Source-Medindia