- Only program in Broward County to offer pediatric and adult kidney transplants
- More than triples the number of lives saved within one year
- Achieves one of the shortest ‘time to transplant’ in Florida
December 8, 2022 – “I got tired of seeing her suffer, so I asked them if I could take a test,” said Justin, 43, who was a perfect match for his mom, Magdalena, 62. After 12 years on dialysis and various transplant denials, Magdalena and Justin’s living donor kidney transplantation surgeries took place in late October. This transplant marked Memorial Transplant Institute’s 100th kidney transplant performed within 2022.
The Son
Magdalena, who was born with polycystic kidneys, felt dialysis was “like a prison sentence.” She underwent multiple surgeries to try to save her kidneys and ultimately ended up on dialysis in 2009. In 2010, her social worker tried to get Magdalena on the kidney transplant list yet failed. After more than a decade on dialysis, and nearly giving up hope, everything changed in 2022 when Memorial received her petition and Magdalena received the call that changed her life.
“It’s always a great day when a patient who has been on dialysis for 12 years receives a kidney,” said Dr. Seyed Ghasemian, chief of Abdominal Transplant, Memorial Healthcare System. “A living donor transplant affords a significant advantage over a deceased donor kidney transplant, as these transplants tend to have fewer complications and on average last nearly twice as long.”
Having a robust living-donor transplant program speaks to the expertise of Memorial’s kidney transplant team, which includes nationally recognized physicians in transplant surgery and nephrology. Dr. Ghasemian and Nephrologist Dr. Basit Javaid each have more 30 years of experience, with Ghasemian having personally performed more than 1,000 kidney transplantations and Javaid facilitating kidney transplantation with excellent post-transplant outcomes for patients with chronic and end stage kidney disease.
Memorial’s Kidney Transplant Program is experiencing exponential growth, more than tripling the number of lives saved from 2021 to 2022. Clinical experts credit the combination of an experienced medical and surgical team that performs innovative, complex kidney transplants, coupled with the philosophy of seeing every organ as a potential chance at life, and accepting recipients who others consider “high risk.” Due to this unique approach to kidney transplantation, the program has achieved one of the shortest “time to transplant” (12 months) and one of the highest transplant rates in Florida, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
“Memorial’s kidney transplant team is committed to ensuring the safety of our patients as we are coordinating life-saving transplants with positive outcomes,” said Dr. Javaid, chief of Abdominal Transplant Medicine, Memorial Healthcare System. “We are not turning patients or suitable organs away, and our expert team of physicians, practitioners, nurses, and support staff are addressing the disparities in organ availability by utilizing as many different methods of transplantation as possible.”
Aside from living donor transplantation, Memorial’s Kidney Transplant Program offers all kidney transplant options available at other nationally recognized transplant centers, including immunologically incompatible transplants, blood type incompatible transplants, and kidney transplants from donors who have hepatitis C to recipients who do not.
“Memorial is proud to be one of four transplant centers in Florida, and one of approximately a hundred such centers in the country, working with the National Kidney Registry, a nonprofit that offers a variety of living donation programs, including paired donations, also known as “kidney swap, where a living kidney donor and their incompatible recipient enter a national database and swap kidneys with a donor who is compatible with the recipient,” said Dr. Linda Chen, surgical director, Living Donor and Pediatric Abdominal Transplant Program, Memorial Healthcare System.
Since the Kidney Transplant Program began in 2017, 257 patients have received life-saving kidney transplants. Most recently, the program has received referrals from all over the country and has transplanted two patients from out of state.
About Memorial Transplant Institute
Memorial Transplant Institute, based at Memorial Regional Hospital and including Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, is one of only two programs in South Florida to offer adult and pediatric heart and kidney transplants. Over the past decade, Memorial Healthcare System received three federal approvals from UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing), authorizing Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital to launch its pediatric heart transplant program in 2010, followed by the adult heart transplant program under Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute in 2014, and the adult and pediatric kidney transplant program in 2017. For more information about transplantation or donation, call 954-265-7450 or visit MHS.net/Kidney.
