PKD Patient Undergoes Four-Way Transplant
On Monday, surgeons at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center performed successful kidney transplants on two sets of brothers. The end result: PKD patient Layne Smith, a member of the Seattle Chapter of the PKD Foundation, now has a healthy kidney. His brother and another set of brothers he’d never even met are to thank.
The following stories from Seattle's KOMO 4 News explain more. Visit www.pkdcure.org often for regular updates to this story! To read about another paired kidney exchange involving PKD patient Sally Bodge, click here.
Rare double kidney swap between two sets of brothers
October 6, 2006
By Matt Markovich
SEATTLE - Surgeons at Seattle's Swedish Medical Center will conduct a rare double swap kidney transplant involving two sets of brothers on Monday. It will require four simultaneous operations with each one dependent on the success of the other.
"It's not unique, it's rare," says Dr. William Marks, the director of the organ transplant program at Swedish Medical Center. The multiple kidney transplant resulted from two sets of brothers who wanted to donate a kidney to their blood brother, but that blood brother wasn't a perfect match.
Layne Smith of Seattle was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease in 2000. The life-threatening genetic disease causes cysts to form in the kidneys. Eventually the kidneys grow from the size of a fist to possibly the size of a football and become non-functional.
Smith, a CPA from Northgate, had both his kidneys removed earlier this year and has been dialysis ever since.
His brother, Gary Smith of Missoula, Montana, offered to donate one of his kidneys for transplant into Layne but tests determined he was the wrong blood type. A transplant from Gary to Layne was impossible.
Layne was then put on a list with 60,000 other people in need of a kidney transplant. His wait for a deceased donor organ may have been longer than usual because he has an uncommon blood type.
But staffers in organ donor match program at Swedish that Dr. Marks overseas found a pair of brothers in Yakima facing the same dilemma. One brother wanted to give to another, but their blood types differed, making their transplant from brother to brother impossible.
Marks and his team found the blood types of Gary Smith and the Yakima brother in need of a kidney did match. They suggested the swap to the donating brother and both brothers agreed. Instead of donating a kidney to their blood brother, they'll donate to another brother in spirit.
"I'm excited", says Layne Smith. "Some people I talked with say their brother would never do this from them. I'm luck to have a brother to do this."
Dr. Marks is careful to emphasize the operation won't be simple. "People think that getting a kidney transplant is like changing out your oil filter, it's not," he said.
There are ethical considerations that play into the surgery as well. "We have to assure that once one donor is committed, that both donors are committed which is why we want to move along in parallel," says Marks.
The operations will begin with both donors going under the knife first. Marks and his team will inspect the donors kidneys to see if they will be suitable for transplant. If not, the four way operation could be put into jeopardy.
If the kidneys look good, then the two recipients will then be prep to received them and the double swap transplant will take place. From beginning to end, the operations will take about seven hours.
For More Information:
www.pkdcure.org
Rare double swap kidney transplant a success
October 10, 2006
By Matt Markovich
SEATTLE - In a carefully choreographed operation lasting over seven hours, surgeons at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle on Monday performed a rare simultaneous double kidney swap on two sets of brothers.
Most kidney transplants involved a deceased donor, but doctors say it's always preferable to get a live donor. In this case, the kidney transplant involved two live donors with uncommon blood types and the recipients were the other donor's brother.
"This is not unique, it's rare," says. Dr. William Marks, head of the organ transplant department at Swedish and leader of the surgical team that performed the operation.
The double swap kidney transplant resulted when two sets of donors wanted to give their kidneys to their ailing brothers. Layne Smith of Seattle had both his kidneys removed earlier this year after being diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease. His older brother, Gary Smith of Missoula, Montana didn't hesitate to offer his kidney for transplant to his brother but blood tests determined that it would be an impossible match.
Ironically, there was a similar situation in Yakima. Jason Baum was suffering from renal failure and was on course for total kidney failure unless he had a transplant. His older brother Devon didn't hesitate to offer a kidney for transplant into Jason. But as was the case with the Smith brothers, blood tests showed Jason and Devon where not a match.
That's when a staffer at Swedish's organ donor program realized that a cross swap would be possible between the two sets of brothers. Gary Smith's kidney could be transplanted into Jason Baum, and Devon Baum's kidney could go into Layne Smith. The uncommon blood types worked in their favor.
"I'd never heard of it before and I really thought that would really have to take a miracle for all four people to participate," says Kara Smith, the wife of donor Gary Smith.
Both brothers agreed to donate their gift of live to the other donor's brother and that made the surgery a go.
"He's really saving two lives 'cause he's giving someone a kidney and giving my husband a chance to have a kidney," says Sandy Baum, the wife of kidney recipient Jason Smith and talking about her brother in law Devon.
With two sets of brothers heading into surgery, it posed an interesting dilemma to parents who were at the hospital.
"When they both went their separate ways, well, which son are you going to go with?" said Connie Rogers,t he mother of the Baum brothers. "I went up with Devon until he went into surgery and I've been up with Jason until he goes in."
During the surgery, anxious family members waited for word the double swap was a go. Medical ethics could have prevented the entire swap from going forward if one of the two couldn't happen.
"You just hope that faith comes through on things like this and it's worked out for both of these families absolutely perfectly", says Bobbie Smith, the son of donor Gary Smith.
According to family members, the doctors say the double swap went exactly as planned. Both sets of brothers are said to be recovering and could be released from the hospital on Thursday.