Maine man donated kidney to his dying twin brother in 1954
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comDonor in first successful U.S. organ transplant dies
Seeded on Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:11 AM EST (msnbc.com)
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Thank gosh for transplants!! My father recived a heart transplant in August 2000 and lived another ten years. He died on July 4, 2009 those were the best ten years I could of asked for!!!!
My thoughts and prayers are with his family. What a courageous thing he did so many years ago that has lead to many people being saved. The need for donors is so great that I wish more people would become live donors. If you are thinking of being a donor please stop thinking and do.
Great post, rightsforall. It is a very courageous thing to donate whether you are a live donor or request donation after passing on. It is a way for a person to live on by helping others to live on. Many states will put the donor designation on the driver license. If anyone is thinking about becoming a donor, please discuss this with your family and friends so that they are well aware of your wishes. It can help to prevent a lot of confusion, pain and legal action. Once a person expires, all bets are off and the surviving family members can step in to try and stop the organ donation gift.
Hi chefaz! Good to see you! And I could not agree more with donation, both living and when you are deceased. I have my purple donor card right behind my license in my wallet..they can have it all as far as I am concerned. We have never had the opportunity to be on a registry but would definatley consider it. That is what we are here for...to help others and to give. Too bad most people have lost sight of that these days.
GOD Bless your generosity and love, Nikita. I'm so glad to have met you.
Ditto!! You have no idea (or maybe you do - LOL) how nice it is to meet good people on here who know how to have a discussion. I admit sometimes people peeve me off and I take the bait, but lately I have been meeting some great folks on here and adding great friends to my profile
:-)
Remarkable technology, but why did the brother die 8 years later?
I am ignorant as to why
My guess is his heart stopped beating and he stopped breathing.
Thank God for donors! He was very brave and helped the medical field increase their knowledge and abilities. My prayers are with his family! I am an organ donor and have instructed my family that anything that can be used should be. However, they probably won't want my liver or lungs. :)
And smwboxer - I voted for your comment! The mean, dark and twisted sense of humor that I posses demanded it! The Devil made me do it!!! lol
I would like to be an organ donor, but the Red Cross feels that Systemic Lupus is a contagious disease, so they don't want my blood and have told me not to donate my organs.
According to the article:
That's why he died, not because he donated a kidney 56 years ago.
countrygirl78 - I'm sorry to hear that. I hope your health improves. The fact that you would donate says a lot about you as a person. I have asthma and am anemic so they don't want my blood either but like you, I would give if I could!
countrygirl78: that means that because of lupus (also happens with other auto-immune diseases) your blood and organs have some unwanted antibodies that may prevent the transplant from succeeding.
You are correct that your main organs can not be donated. But soft tissue is still usable. Skin, ligaments, ect. There is no chance of rejection with ligaments because they to not require a blood supply.
Countrygirl78: You CAN donate! My wife has severe RA and is on the donor list to give to other RA patients. Your organs can be given to people who do not qualify for organ transplant from the general organ banks. organs from people with autoimmune diseases can be given to other autoimmune patients to help them.
Bless him.
the date is obviously wrong
Sometimes the donor does die. It's rare, but it does happen.
I think you misread the story. He dontated decades ago.
According to the article:
That's why he died, not because he donated a kidney 56 years ago.
Right, I think people are wondering what happened to the other brother, the recipient of the kidney.
To answer one of the questions raised, the brother died eight years later of the same disease that caused his original kidney to fail. This from a New York Times article. As to this man, yes that was a very brave thing to do. There had been 5 attempts at this surgery prior to this one and all those patients had died within days of the operation. The longest survivor only lived less than 180 days so there was little if any hope that this one would allow the brother much more life. Both were 23 years old at the time. My sympathy goes out to the family and my gratitude to a real hero that was amongst us.
Rest in Peace............
My uncle made a very ironic observation after aneurysm surgery..."Dr. Frankenstein wasn't that far off".
My husband received a liver 18 years ago and it is still functioning beautifully. He now awaits a kidney due to the damage caused by the anti-rejection treatment. We are treating with home hemodialysis ourselves while we wait.
Medicine has come a long way and still has a long way to go. GOD Bless the medical pioneers.
They merely enable grotesqueries.
Sorry that you feel that way, kedbob. I hope that you or any of your loved ones are never in need. Would hate to see you go through life as a grotesquery.
kedbob, are you willing to tell us the reason you think transplants only enable grotesqueries? Have you or someone you know had one that didn't work out well?
Kedbob is just trolling. School out until next week and he had no friends to keep him occupied.
ahhh...I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I see that perhaps wisdom precludes intuitive input. Or something like that...
I work for a wonderful woman, who donated a kidney to her twin brother around 45 years ago, the brother is the longest living recipient to date. He has started to have health issues now but has lived into his 60's so far.
Yes, thank God for modern medicine, the fabulous men and women who are daily extending our lives. Thank God also for the brave men, women and young people who willingly donate body parts and fluids to help others. Please check in the Guiness Book of World Records though, for the longest surviving kidney transplant recipient, I don't think she would care to be remembered as a he.
The state of "Donors" is a mess because of the UNNECESSARY lack of donors. There needs to be a change that allows Donors, or their surviving families, to be paid for Organ Donation.
Everybody else in the medical system is getting paid during the donation process: the Doctors get their surgery fees; the Nurses get their paychecks; the Equipment providers SELL their equipment to the hospitals; the Hospital gets paid; the list of who gets paid is endless ... but comes to a sudden stop BECAUSE OF A SUDDEN REMEMBERING BY THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY OF "ETHICS" ONCE THEIR OWN POCKETS AREN'T INVOLVED when it comes to the most critical part, the donated part.
A LOT of good organs get buried with accident victims etc., organs that would be available for minimal cost if families were allowed to sell, even if just for offsetting the funeral bill, the organs of the deceased.
Hypocrisy Abounds in the Medical Field when it comes to Organ Donations. Nobody in that field is giving away anything when it comes to their own pocket books, but they suddenly have a fit of "Ethics" and nearly go into convulsions when it comes to someone else's pocket book.
Steve I understand your point.. the main reason why you cannot sell your organs is MONEY ironic huh?? If you could purchase organs then those with the money would live and those without would not... Basically getting paid from them means you are selling them.
I have a cousin (32yo) who is currently in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant.. (genetic issue)... I feel like a horrible human hoping he gets a heart because it means someone elses loved one must die.
So Steve what is the price for a life? At the age of 23 my daughter made the decision to give someone the gift of life as a live organ donor. She did not receive one penny for her generosity. You are disgusting! It is people like you who only want money that hurts the cause.
You also have to keep in mind, most organs are not viable once the body dies. I know this all to well, when my younger brother died, he wanted to donate his organs, but ultimately we couldn't because of the fact that the body was not kept alive, and the organs were no longer usable.
This is true Eric. Organ donation basically boils down to someone being in a bad accident or going into cardiac arrest or something and the rescuer's have to get on that and do everything to keep that person breathing until organ donation can be done. Even then there is a small frame of time to get those organs out of the body before everything starts to shut down.
to rightsforall...your daughter is an amazing human being and you should be very proud of her. That is what it's about! Doing it to help someone else...not yourself!
Ever see the movie Seven Pounds?
The problem with selling them is that then it becomes a commodity and then we start deciding who should get the organ based on who can afford them, not on who is the sickest. How about this........you have to OPT OUT. Instead of consulting the family, the family has to go to the doctors and say, "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Until that, it will be assumed that every dead body with viable organs is a donor. Of course, the families WILL NOT BE CHARGED, which is another reason why we need single-payer health care. Everyone should be an organ donor, period. Too many organs go to waste and too many lives can be saved.
hollywoodunderground-
Good points but I think you missed the main reason why live organ donation should be forbidden- it is fundamentally exploitative and is basically putting pressure on poor people to risk serious bodily harm or death. Why those with money already have a major advantage to receiving organs- at least healthy people are not currently being pressured to be harvested because of economic need. While live donation is a seriously wonderful thing to do and should be encouraged- no healthy person should risk death because of money. I do agree that everyone should donate when they pass- I certainly love that they make it easy in the states I've lived in to check the box to get a "donate" sticker on my driver's license.
Kidney disease runs in my family. I only have one kidney that works, but not kidney disease. My brother, who lives in another state, has kidney disease and will be going on dialysis pretty soon if he doesn't get a transplant. I have no way of knowing exactly what is going on down there with him because he doesn't want to worry us. He is blood type O and can only receive a transplant from an O, which is a rare blood type. I can only pray that someone will give him one soon.
Type O is NOT a rare blood type. Type O positive and type O negative are both the most common of their types of blood. Type B is rare... not O. O negative is known as the universal donor as the cells do not have the proteins on them that produce deadly reactions from transplants or receiving blood. People with type O positive can only receive, however from others with O blood, and people with O negative can only receive from O negative blood.
Depending on the organ needed, matching blood type may be the only thing necessary for receiving a transplant, although there are some types of transplant that require more blood factors to match.
I understand that with a kidney transplant more factors have to match than do with a liver transplant. I received mine more than 9 years ago and have been able to return to work and live a full life since doing so.
I pray that your brother will soon receive a transplant.
My wife and i are so thankful to this man for his ground breaking donation. 10 years ago my wifes kidney's failed and she received a transplant, that also saved her life. Its not until you read a story like this do you even realize the peoples names that had an instramental part in saving her life. Thank you Mr. Herrick and Dr. Murray. Mike and Tammy
My mother died a few months ago, but she would have died back in 1969 had she not received a kidney from a live donor (interestingly, from my *father's* sister). That's an extra 41 years I had with her, thanks to my aunt's selflessness. There aren't many people in this world who are noble enough to be a live donor, but anyone can - and should - check the organ donor box on your driver's license and make your wishes known to your loved ones.
Looking for a real hero? Look to the Ronald Lee Herricks and the doctors who save lives every day with transplants. If you haven't told your family that you want to be an organ donor, now is your chance.
Actually, MissyAnn, Type O is the most common of all the blood types. Type AB Negative is the most rare. I am a Type O and currently on Peritoneal Dialysis waiting for transplant #4. The reason Type O's have such a long wait for an organ is because we can give to everybody, but can only receive from other Type O's. I'll be praying that everyone waiting for a transplant gets one soon (including myself, if that's okay with everybody that I am including myself). While dialysis is absolutely NO FUN, it's a hell of a lot better than the alternative. God bless and TTFN!!!
This story caught my attention for some reason. I think because my 8 year old daughter was asking everyone on Christmas day if they were organ donors. She told everyone that she was a donor, and if they were not sure, she told them to make sure they were, because it can save peoples lives. if only there were more people like my daughter...
May Ronald RIP.
Jennifer,
God bless your thoughtful and considerate daughter!
As for Ronald Herrick, he and Dr. Murray attended the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games. Both men were still energetic and it's just amazing to me at how far we've come in modern medicine.
I'm personally involved in organ donation awareness seeing that I received a heart/double lung transplant 14.5 years ago when I was 16 years old. My donor was an 11 year old girl. I still don't know who saved my life but I'm forever grateful to my anonymous donor and donor family.
As an identical twin, there would never be a hesitation to donate for my sister. The bonds of twins run deeper than you can imagine. If my genetic material would provide life for another why not....
What that man did was one of the most courageous things he could ever do. It's no wonder the OR nurse married him. He set the stage for so many saved lives...a buddy of mine got a heart transplant that lasted 9 years- and when he died, it wasn't because of his heart. He died from melanomas caused by fishing out in the sun every day in Florida. Other friends of mine have has cornea transplants, two liver transplants, donor skin grafts, vertebral bone grafts...one woman I know in new Hampshire had a whole lung and heart harness transplant- both lungs and the connected heart at the same time. All because of heroes like this guy.
I don't understand what they mean by ( Live Donor) transplants, how can one donate an organ if they r still alive ???
Your body can still function with only one kidney. So if you donated one kidney to someone, you would still be able to survive. you can also donate part of your liver. Bone marrow is also another item in need that you can donate while alive, since it will replinish itself within a month or two. It's not actually an organ, but I'm just throwing it out there.
Bonnie, when you give blood you can talk to the red cross about become a bone marrow donor. I was test am on the list... I've been called in 2x but unfortunately while my blood type was a match other things were not... but the red cross can call me at any time to come in for more testing.. if the day comes I'm a match then someone's life may be saved..... Not to mention giving blood is one of the greatest live donations you can give!!!!!
Bonnie another Live donation is plasm.. it truly saves lives daily.. it's a little longer then regular blood donation about 2hrs your first visit for the physical and some questions but about 45mins to an hour after that. Also you are able to donate plasm much more often then blood.
yeah that would be plasma... oppss
Sorry, I thought O was rare because the blood banks are always so low on it where I am.
Missy they are low because O is considered a universal donor... and in emergencies can be crossed with other types. I'm O and give every 60 days without fail... I work part time in a trauma center in a major hospital and see first hand what a simple 20min act of giving blood can do for sooo many.
We donated my dads organs six years ago. He had a massive Aneurysm AT AGE 57 and was declared brain dead. My dad was a very generous person in life and in death. We had the honor of helping three people with two kidneys and a liver..among all of the tissues he donated as well. I find comfort in helping those people survive and live and get to enjoy more years with their loved ones. It was the hardest and most generous thing another person could give someone else. RIP SGT John M Contreras.