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Newark, NJ -- It was a momentous reunion for patients who participated in a ground-breaking six-way renal transplant chain, involving six living donors and six recipients, one of the two largest transplant chains ever performed in the world. On Thursday, May 14 the donors and recipients, their families and their medical teams met at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC) to celebrate the unprecedented donation of life that took place at NBIMC, Saint Barnabas Medical Center (SBMC) and Weil-Cornell Medical Centers on March 12 and 13.
“This successfully coordinated transplant chain demonstrates the Transplant Program’s commitment to improving the lives of patients, as well as the courage of the donors and recipients,” said Stuart Geffner, M.D., Director of Kidney and Pancreas Surgery. “I am extremely proud of all the teams who worked to make a difference in the lives of these patients.”
 Coordinated by The National Kidney Registry, the six-way renal transplant chain made possible through a regional Paired Exchange Program, was originally started by Transplant Programs at SBMC and NBIMC several years ago, together with the NJ Sharing Network (NJSN). With an average waiting time of 5 years for a kidney, living donation is often the best alternative. The Paired Exchange Program allows patients who have a willing donor, but whose donor does not match them, the alternative of joining a
registry where they are matched with others in the same situation.
One of the most remarkable elements of this chain is that two of the donors are altruistic donors (not related or a friend). One altruistic donor said he wanted to do something good for someone else, although he did not have a specific person in mind when he made this decision. The other altruistic donor learned of her recipient’s plight through a newspaper article. Although they never met and tests revealed that she was not a match, the donor was willing to go through months of uncertainty by entering the Paired Exchange Registry to ultimately benefit the 24-year-old woman. The recipient, who has had kidney disease since age 12 and has been on dialysis for two years, can now return to college and have more time with her two-year-old daughter. The 54-year-old donor is the mother of a son who at age 16 received a kidney from her brother.
 The Chain
These ground-breaking living donor transplants began with the altruistic donor at Cornell who, together with five matched pairs from the Registry and one patient on the waiting list, resulted in six transplants.
Complex planning was necessary between the three large Medical Centers and the organ procurement agency. The chain began when a kidney was removed from a donor on March 12 at Weil-Cornell and was transported to Newark Beth Israel for transplant.
Simultaneously, a kidney was removed from a donor at Newark Beth Israel and transported by a second van to Saint Barnabas for transplant. Two additional removals and two transplants were performed at Weil-Cornell this same day. On March 13, two additional kidney removals and two transplants were performed at Newark Beth Israel, completing the chain of six transplants.
The Team
To achieve this chain of multiple renal transplants required the coordination of a large team of specialists under the direction of Shamkant Mulgaonkar, M.D., Chief of the Transplant Division of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System; Stuart Geffner, M.D., Director of Kidney and Pancreas Surgery for SBHCS; Sadanand Palekar, M.D., Program Director of the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Program, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center; Debra Morgan, LCSW, Director of the Transplant Division, SBHCS; Marie Morgievich, MS, RN, APN-C, Transplant Nurse Practitioner; Tatiana Alvarez, RN, Transplant Coordinator at NBIMC and a large medical team at Cornell. Across the hospitals, teams of transplant surgeons, transplant nephrologists, urologists, anesthesiologists and other highly specialized staff assembled for this huge medical procedure. In addition, NJSN had multiple staff members in recovery services to transport the kidneys.
The Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal Transplant Division, located at Saint Barnabas and Newark Beth Israel ranked 7th in the nation in 2007 with 257 renal transplants. In 2008, the number rose to 273 at the two facilities, raising the ranking to 4th in the country.
Visit nj.com/kidney to read a series of Star-Ledger articles about this story.
Date: June 7, 2009
Contact: Beth Salamon
Public Relations
Phone: 973.322.4926
esalamon@sbhcs.com
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