HARRISBURG \u2014 Fernando Moreno has been on dialysis for about two years, enduring an \u201cunbearable\u201d wait for a new kidney to save his life. His limited world of social contacts has meant that his hopes have hinged on inching up the national waiting list for a transplant.<\/p>\n
That was until earlier this year, when the Philadelphia hospital where he receives treatment connected him with a promising pilot project that has paired him with \u201cangel advocates\u201d \u2014 good Samaritan strangers scattered around the country who leverage their own social media contacts to share his story.<\/p>\n
So far, the Great Social Experiment, as it was named by its founder, Los Angeles filmmaker David Krissman, hasn\u2019t found the Vineland, New Jersey, truck driver a living kidney donor. But there are encouraging early signs the angel advocate approach is working, and there\u2019s no question it has given Moreno new optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis process is great,\u201d said Moreno, 50, whose father died of kidney failure at 65. \u201cI\u2019m just hoping there will be somebody out there that\u2019s willing to take a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreno is part of a pilot program with 15 patients that began in May at three Pennsylvania hospitals. It\u2019s testing whether motivated, volunteer strangers can help improve the chances of finding a lifesaving match for a new kidney \u2014 particularly for people with limited social networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how this has always been done, and we\u2019re trying to put that on steroids and really get them the help that they need,\u201d Krissman said. \u201cMost patients are too sick to do this on their own \u2014 many don\u2019t have the skills to do it on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seeking blueprint<\/p>\n
The Gift of Life Donor Program, which serves as the organ procurement network for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, is supporting the pilot program with a grant of more than $100,000 from its foundation.<\/p>\n
So far, two of the five patients in the program through Temple University Hospital have found kidney donors, and one is preparing for surgery, according to Ryan Ihlenfeldt, the hospital\u2019s director of clinical transplant services. One of the five patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Harrisburg has also undergone a transplant.<\/p>\n
The approach Krissman has developed is something new, said Richard Hasz Jr., Gift of Life\u2019s chief executive, and may help identify the types of messages that attract and motivate potential live kidney donors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first of its kind that I\u2019m aware of,\u201d Hasz said. \u201cThat\u2019s why, I think, the foundation was so interested in doing it \u2014 studying it and hopefully publishing it \u2014 so we can create that blueprint, if you will, for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gift of Life agreed to fund a broader test and helped Krissman identify five patients each at Temple, UPMC-Harrisburg and Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Hasz said the pilot program\u2019s approach combines social media outreach with Krissman\u2019s storytelling talents and aggressive efforts to mobilize the patients\u2019 own connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that patients who are waiting don\u2019t always have the energy or the resources to do this themselves,\u201d Hasz said.<\/p>\n
There have been other ways for patients to set up \u201cmicrosites\u201d where they can tell their stories and seek a donor match. But the pilot program currently underway in Pennsylvania aims to connect patients with a wide universe of potential donors and produce videos and other ways to spread their message.<\/p>\n
Potential to \u2018snowball\u2019<\/p>\n
Krissman\u2019s bout with an illness about two decades ago inspired him to tackle the sticky challenge of increasing live kidney donations. He was debilitated for more than a year before medication helped him recover, saying, \u201cIt gave me my life back. And I never forgot what it\u2019s like to be chronically sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
After producing a podcast on kidney transplantation, Krissman recruited four patients through Facebook who were waiting for kidneys. He was able to help two of them. A second effort, a pilot program with three patients in North Carolina that ended last year, helped match all three with living donors.<\/p>\n
Becca Brown, director of transplant services at UPMC-Harrisburg, thinks it might be a game changer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s potential for this to really snowball,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019m anxious to see what happens and if we can roll it out to other patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some 90,000 people in the United States are on a list for a kidney transplant, and most of the roughly 28,000 kidneys that were transplanted last year came from deceased donors. Living kidney donations are hard to come by \u2014 about 6,400 were transplanted last year. Thousands die each year waiting for an organ transplant in the United States.<\/p>\n
Living kidney donations can be a better match, reducing the risk of organ rejection. They allow for surgery to be planned for a time that is optimal for the donor, the recipient and the transplant team. And, the foundation says, living donor kidneys, on average, last longer than kidneys from deceased donors.<\/p>\n
The National Kidney Foundation says living donors must be at least 18 years old, although some transplant centers set the minimum age at 21.<\/p>\n
Riley Brubaker, left, Gerald Cameron and David Krissman, right, spread the word Saturday outside Broad Street Market in Harrisburg about the need for kidney donors. AP PHOTO\/MARK SCOLFORO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG \u2014 Fernando Moreno has been on dialysis for about two years, enduring an \u201cunbearable\u201d wait for a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":453843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-453842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115736441338122415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}