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800th organ transplant performed at Memorial

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[February 07, 2012]  SPRINGFIELD -- The call Stephanie Constant had been waiting for arrived on Christmas Day. She had been waiting for eight years.

"I was so excited. It was a shock," the Havana mom of two preteen children said about the call that a kidney was available. "It was our Christmas Day miracle."

On Dec. 26, Constant became the 800th recipient of an organ transplant from the Alan G. Birtch, MD Center for Transplant Services at Memorial Medical Center. Marc Garfinkel, M.D., the transplant program's surgical director, performed Constant's transplant. The transplant program was founded in 1972, and the first transplant was performed in July 1973.

More than a month after the surgery, Constant said she is "doing very well. I'm doing some housework and trying to get back into my routine of taking care of the kids."

The 33-year-old mom said complications after the birth of her second child led to the loss of her kidneys.

Reaching a milestone of 800 transplants has been uplifting for the entire transplant team, said Deb Werner, R.N., manager of transplant and dialysis services at Memorial.

"After being in existence for 40 years, we're proud to continue to be the only transplant center in central and southern Illinois to provide this service to the patients in our area," Werner said.

The program was founded by and named for Dr. Alan fcBirtch, who was recruited by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine to join its faculty. Under his leadership as medical director, the transplant program was developed through a partnership between Memorial and SIU. Birtch died at the age of 79 on Dec. 28.

The transplant program offers a personal, holistic approach that involves patient education, coordination of long-term medical care, social work support and helping patients resolve concerns about costs for necessary medications. The multidisciplinary transplant team manages the care of approximately 250 post-transplant patients as well as patients who are on the waiting list for an organ.

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Physicians who are included on the transplant team include Dr. Garfinkel, associate professor with SIU School of Medicine's Division of General Surgery and surgical director of the program; David Rea, M.D., assistant professor, SIU School of Medicine's Division of General Surgery; and Brad West, M.D., of Springfield Clinic, who serves as the medical director of the program.

In the last fiscal year, which ended in September, the transplant program's staff performed 32 transplants, including 10 live donor kidney transplants, 18 deceased donor kidney transplants and four deceased donor kidney-and-pancreas transplants.

For more information, call Memorial's Transplant Services at 217-788-3441.

[Text from file received from Memorial Health System]

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