1. LIVING LIVER DONOR WHO SAVED LIFE OF MOTHER-IN-LAW TO REPRESENT CEDARS-SINAI IN ROSE PARADE ON NEW YEAR'S DAYWhen Keith Karzin donated half his liver to his mother-in-law in November 2003, he wanted nothing in return except to save the life of his wife's mother and his children's grandmother. But the 45-year-old Valencia resident has been chosen to represent Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on the Donate Life Rose Parade® Float this coming New Year's Day.
"It's going to be an honor, and I think it's important because word needs to get out that people have the power to save lives," says Karzin, noting that his children, Ashley, 12, Hannah, 10, and Garrett, 7, will see the event in person.
Full news release and photos available. Karzin and other transplant patients and staff from Cedars-Sinai will be helping to decorate the OneLegacy Rose Parade float on Dec. 28.
2. A NEW YEAR AND A NEW LEASE ON LIFE: THERAPY MODULATES HIGHLY SENSITIZED IMMUNE SYSTEM TO LET MOTHER GIVE KIDNEY TO DAUGHTERAs the New Year approached last year, Soraya Kohanzadeh, 30, Muir Beach, CA, was living day to day, extremely ill, with no hope and expecting to live a shortened life dependent on kidney dialysis. She needed a kidney transplant but because her "anti-donor" antibody levels were so high, her doctors believed that a transplant was impossible " perhaps ever. However, thanks to a specialized type of anti-rejection therapy pioneered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Soraya successfully underwent a transplant in May of this year and has a "new lease on life" as she looks forward to 2007.
Soraya, was among the estimated 33 percent of kidney failure patients who have high "anti-donor" antibody levels and who are often told that a transplant is not possible even if a potential donor's tissue and blood types otherwise match perfectly. But on May 16, 2006, she received a kidney donated by her mother, Joan Lando, at Cedars-Sinai . The transplanted kidney started working immediately, both patients recovered well, and Soraya has had no episodes of rejection " the result of a therapy that makes the incompatible compatible and the impossible a reality in many cases. A full news release with detailed information is available.
3. ONCE-DIABETIC HEART/KIDNEY/PANCREAS TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT ENJOYS LIFE (AND EATING AGAIN)At this year's holiday dinners, Calabasas, Calif., resident Jim Stavis, 52, was able to eat the same pumpkin pie and special desserts that everyone else had, not the sugar-free variety. And when dinner was over, he didn't have to reach for his insulin pump to try to compensate. A pancreas transplant performed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in late October cured him of diabetes, which had controlled his life for 35 years.
Oh, and a heart and kidney transplant performed at the same place and same time the year before saved his life.
Only about eight patients in the United States have received simultaneous transplants of a heart, kidney and pancreas since 1992, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), and the first European patient to receive this combination of organs simultaneously was reported to be in good health 11 years after the procedure. If a combination like Jim's " heart and kidney, followed later by a pancreas transplant " has been performed, it does not appear to be documented in medical literature. In any case, Jim is among elite company worldwide. Full news release available.
4. AFTER OPEN-HEART SURGERY IN JUNE AND A LIVER/KIDNEY TRANSPLANT IN AUGUST, 72-YEAR-OLD BEVERLY HILLS MAN IS HERE FOR HIS FAMILYAs consciousness seeped back into James Brubaker's existence, he learned he had collapsed in his kitchen four days earlier while suffering massive blood loss caused by the rupture of esophageal varices " collateral veins that grow in the esophagus as a complication of liver disease.
"The doctor said, 'This is all caused by a liver problem,'" Brubaker, who will be 73 on New Year's Day, recalls. If his liver continued to deteriorate, he would need a transplant, but age and weight were not in his favor. Then, seven months later, in October 2005, he learned that a heart rhythm problem had reached a point that would further complicate the situation.
"I couldn't have the liver transplant unless I had the heart problem fixed, and the doctors were reluctant to do surgery on the heart for fear that the anesthetic would cause liver failure," says Brubaker, a retired writer who also worked for two major computer companies and started the first company in California that put automatic teller machines in convenience stores and supermarkets. He and his wife, Joyce, residents of Beverly Hills, are the guardians of his grandson, Brian, now 13.
Brubaker is certain that some transplant centers would have refused to take his case, based on age alone. But he received support from several Cedars-Sinai surgeons and physicians, including Comprehensive Transplant Center Director Andrew S. Klein, M.D., and Fred Poordad, M.D., chief of Hepatology at the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation. Poordad asked Brubaker why he would want to go through the rigors of a transplant operation at his age.
"I said it's really very simple," Brubaker says. "I've got a kid who is 11 (at that time), and I'm his guardian. He's my grandson, my oldest son's son. And I've got to see that kid get through college and get on with his life. And my wife lost her first husband to cancer "¦. They're not going to get what they need with me gone. So I will take these risks if you will do them, to try to extend my life enough to get him on his feet and get my wife taken care of."
Brubaker's heart operation was performed on June 9, 2006 by cardiothoracic surgeon Gregory P. Fontana, M.D. His liver transplant, which also included a kidney transplant, took place on Aug. 31, with teams headed by Klein and kidney/pancreas transplant specialist Donald C. Dafoe, M.D.
"Dr. Klein said, 'From the minute we put it in there, that liver has functioned as though it has been part of your body all your life,'" Brubaker recalls.
5. BEVERLY HILLS MAN DIAGNOSED WITH BRAIN TUMOR RESPONDS WITH SENSE OF HUMOR AND ZEST FOR LIFEDon Zuber, 58, wastes very little time rethinking the past or worrying about the future. He and his wife of 37 years, Noriko, have worked together, traveled the world, and raised two sons " one of whom is getting married on Dec. 30.
But around the first of May 2006, he had a sudden dizzy spell that was significant enough to send him to the doctor. A subsequent MRI showed he had a tumor, which turned out to be a malignant type called a glioblastoma multiforme, and Don was referred to neurosurgeon John S. Yu, M.D., at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
Yu, co-director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program, performed surgery on May 4 to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Don later underwent external beam radiation therapy and radiosurgery " highly focused radiation that targets the tumor while minimizing damage to neighboring, healthy tissue.
"He did tell us that it's a very serious tumor. After the surgery, I never had any headaches or pain, and it just seemed like nothing happened to me "¦ no recurring of the dizziness, no recurring of headaches, so it gives you a great feeling that things are good, that things can be better," says Don, noting that life is unpredictable. "Anyone can drive out there and get killed in a car tomorrow"¦ I'm alive and kicking and having a great time with the family, with the holidays and the wedding to come."
Yu says he and others at Cedars-Sinai have been touched by Don's spirit: "He is a really upbeat person, very humorous, and he has a very wonderful, loving wife. They have a great attitude about life and although they're faced with a desperate situation, they're very upbeat."
Don even approaches the side effects of some of his treatments with humor. He recently started going to physical therapy because he has lost strength, and he sees a dietitian because he has lost weight. "Being self-employed for thirty-some years, this gives me a job, which keeps he going," he says with a chuckle.
"I have a lot to be grateful for," he says. "There's nothing but happy moments around for the past four months or so with my son saying he'll be married and he wants to do it here in L.A."
Besides, it's the holidays. He and Noriko got their Christmas tree near the end of November. "I love the smell of pine, so that makes you cheerful," he says.
Don returns for follow-up MRIs from time to time, even taking those in stride.
"Those are the nervous days. But you have to go in there with the same feeling. You've still got your wife around and the kids. Do it and then go out for dinner or for lunch," Don says, adding that food, wine and family are a few of the things that make life worth living.
When asked if he takes life one day at a time now, he replies, "It's pretty much one day at a time but I'm moving it up to one month at a time."
And while acknowledging that he is disappointed that his treatments have interrupted the couple's travel plans, he says he learned something from being involved in sports. "If you're down by 10 points in basketball, you can't give up. You just gotta go for the win. And if you don't, OK, next game, next month. Same here."
6. FOR LOS ANGELES MAN WHO NEEDED A KIDNEY, FAMILY AND STRANGERS PROVIDE SPECIAL DELIVERY FROM GUATEMALAEliud Lopez needed an organ transplant when a chronic disease caused irreparable damage to his kidneys and forced him to go on dialysis. His sister was a willing and compatible donor. But Eliud was in Los Angeles, where he lives, and Jacqueline Lopez was in Guatemala, and there appeared to be no way to get the two together.
Three Christmases ago, Eliud, who turned 33 on Dec. 23, the father of two daughters, 9 and 5, was healthy and active, working as a car detailer. But his wife, Antonia, began to notice that his abdomen was swelling. She urged him to go to the doctor, and tests showed that his kidneys were failing and he would need a transplant.
Eliud says other family members " including his mother, who also lives in the city " were tested but ruled out as potential donors. Jacqueline was the best hope, but there was no money to make the trip and transplant happen " until a chance encounter occurred a couple of years ago.
Eliud and Jacqueline's brother, Bryan Compusano, who was a student at Washington Preparatory High School, heard a presentation at the school by Mike Jones. An African-American Christian, Jones received a kidney from a white Muslim donor in a Jewish hospital (Cedars-Sinai) in 2001, shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After his experience, Jones founded and is President and CEO of the One Miracle Celebration of Life Foundation, which was established to help educate others on how to give the "gift of life" and remain healthy in the process. After meeting Bryan, Jones took an interest in Eliud's situation.
With help from the foundation, a non-profit organization, Jacqueline came to the United States in February, and the transplant operations were performed at Cedars-Sinai on Nov. 28, 2006. Eliud says he and his sister are doing well and she is pleased "because she gave me the gift of life." The transplanted kidney began to function immediately.
Eliud says the family, which includes another brother who lives in the area, will have a special holiday this year. "We're excited because we've been in a tough situation for two-and-a-half years and now my family's happy. Everybody's happy."
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