 "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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