Living Donors Online Message Board
Living Donation Discussion and News => Living Donation Forum => Topic started by: PhilHoover on July 26, 2011, 06:58:25 AM
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City, State, Medical Facility?
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Hi, Phil!
St. Paul, MN University of MN Fairview. I'm like you- I would send every person there for everything. :) It was the best experience, and I loved the people to pieces.
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Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY - Great experience! Would do it again in a minute. :)
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Boston, MA, Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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Madison, Wi, UW Hospital. Noisy hospital but good care.
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University of Wisconsin - Madison, Wisconsin
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Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI - they have been (and still are) great. The care while in the hospital was first rate.
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UC San Francisco Medical Center. Outstanding!
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California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Excellent doctors and (mostly) nurses. Gave me a private room as a thank-you for donating.
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Milwaukee, WI - surgery at Froedtert Hospital - recovery at Childrens Hospital on same floor as my recipient. Excellent care at both hospitals!
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Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland (11/12/07)
Would have liked a little more emotional support and access to a Living Donor Advocate.
Sherri
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Baltimore, MD - Johns Hopkins
I also would have liked more support from my donor coordinator prior to donation. She was very professional but almost withdrawn and I felt like I was treated as a number rather than a patient sometimes. I think she sees a lot of people start the process and back out, and she probably didn't want to feel like she was validating my decision in an effort not to persuade me, but she could have been more personable. My surgeon, however, was top notch! I'd highly recommend him to anyone considering donation! And Hopkins is good about putting donors in the VIP surgical unit when they have room-it was wonderful!
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Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA. Great hospital, great experience!
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maine medical center, portland, maine
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Atlanta, Georgia at Piedmont Hospital on June 9th, 2011...
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University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center...
The VERY BEST in the nation, in my opinion...
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i donated my left kidney to my brother at Emory Transplant Center in Atlanta ,Ga.the hospital staff was great and Dr. Tso my suregon was great ,he took time to answer all my questions and later emailed me back on questions i had after i left the hospital.the surgrey was on march 15th,2011.
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Loyola Medical Center, Chicago
Must be a midwest thing cuz it was the noisiest facility I've ever been in.
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Emory Transplant Center in Atlanta,Ga. i donated my left kidney to my brother on March 15,2011.great staff at emory,Dr.Tso,my doctor is great!
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New York, NY- Mt. Sinai Medical Center
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Plains, PA Geisinger Wyoming Valley
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University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore MD in April 2009
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Rush University Medical Center: Chicago, IL in August 2010
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Detroit, Michigan - Henry Ford Hospital. One of the more frightening experiences of my life.
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Northwestern Memorial - Chicago
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At Georgetown University Hospital as part of a 13 paired kidney exchange with Washington Hospital Center.
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Yale- New Haven Hospital, Connecticut
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Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY.
They are screen donors and recipient's very carefully - that's what I feel is a plus with this hospital.
The kidney donor coordinator at the hospital, is herself, a kidney donor!
The are affiliated with the National Kidney Registry - which is good for those who have high antibodies and have a hard time finding a match - as the National Kidney Registry is great - you put a donor who is not a match in the swap program and most will eventually get a kidney through the National Kidney Registry.
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UC San Francisco Medical Center. Outstanding!
Ditto! I also spent an extra 9 days visiting the transplant ward every day (for my husband who had post-transplant complications), so I got to know the staff very well and I was completely impressed with all the doctors, nurses, interns, patient assistants, and other staff. Even the food and food service is good!
Now, I hope to never have to go back there ever again! ;)
Kara
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Scheduled for September 6, 2011 at Intermountain Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. So far, so good. I will keep you posted. Interesting side note. Utah has an unusually high number of Living Donors, as well as, caderveric donors. Research to decipher why that is, is underway.
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Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick NJ
good experience (in 2003)
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Riverside California. Riverside Community Hospital
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Toronto General Hospital. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Would do it again in a heartbeat if I could (donated 30% of my liver to my son who was 1 at the time).
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University Of MD Medical Center, Baltimore MD. Surgeon was Dr. Cooper. Excellent surgical and support staff.
Lee (donated July 2007)
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Denver Colorado, University of Colorado Hospital, May 10th 2011
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University of Minnesota - Fairview, Minneapolis, Minnesota October 22, 2010 BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!
Scott 8)
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Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Wonderful experience...had the best care ever!!!
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Cleveland, OH Cleveland Clinic 8/26/1994
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Approved for donation to my brother, who has now been cleared for surgery. Anxiously awaiting an OR date at UCLA, the best in the region. My nurse coordinator is a gem. Very professional and kind. She always responds to my emails.
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Cleveland Clinic. June 2010. Top notch care. Great doctors and excellent donor coordinators.
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Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD. Traveled from out of state.
I had a good experience with my pre-donation coordinator. She was very good with answering emails and hand holding. Sherri from this board also put up with me :)
My husband's coordinator arranged for my kidney to be shipped and gave actual additional updates to my family. She came by to visit twice afterwards. His transplant nephrologist also inquired about my recovery at the six month appointment and put a note in my husband's medical records.
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San Antonio, Texas (Texas Transplant Intitute/Methodist Specialty & Transplant Hospital)
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Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Great experience.
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Birmingham Alabama, UAB. The hospital experience was mostly positive. But I didn't meet my surgeon until the morning of the surgery and was told he would "Probably" be able to see me before surgery. I informed them there would be no surgery if I didn't meet him so for them to convey that to him.
My living donor coordinator was a nightmare from beginning to end! Incredibly frustrating experience. I have not had access to my surgeon after the surgery to answer questions and the coordinator made many mistakes, causing weeks of delays. My recipient had a useless coordinator as well. Communication is a MAJOR issue at this transplant center and it needs to be fixed. It should not have been such a negative experience dealing with the person who is supposed to be my coordinator. (sorry for the rant).
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Toronto, Ontario Canada, St. Michael's
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I donated at "The Johns Hopkins" sorry i just have to put their name is quotes... they are the most arrogant hospital I have ever dealt with. JH process to me feels more like a cattle call than a donation process. The surgeon was good, but did not consider previous medical history in my post-op care and this caused future issues. I dont regret donating my kidney whatsoever, but doing it at a JH yeah I do. I would of prefered Methodist San Antonio... they were so nice there.
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I donated 4 years ago to my brother at Johns Hopkins and felt like I was a spare part with arms and legs attached. I thought maybe it was just me and I was over sensitive and had some grandiose ideas about what a hospital experience should be like for a donor who was having elective surgery to help improve the life of their family member. i wrote a letter to the head of surgery detailing both the positive and negatives of the experience and she never responded; just passed it to some PR person. I did receive a letter signed by her asking me for money to continue some program yada yada. I did make a donations but earmarked them for living donor funds.
Nice to hear you were able to separate the less than positive experience and concentrate on the other positives of being a living donor.
Sherri
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University of MD. in Baltimore. The center did a tremendous job with the entire process!!! :)
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Medical College of Georgia - Augusta, GA
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I donated at University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. They are supposed to be one of the best transplant centers in the country but I have been totally underwhelmed by them. The pre-transplant coordinator never returned my calls and it took 5 calls by me just to get an appt. to get tested. Post surgery there has been NO contact from them. I had to call several times to get my one year post-surgery check-up and after that they sent me on my way and have no interest in how I am doing. I saw that others sent their yearly blood work to the transplant center...definitely not the case with Upenn. Disappointed.
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Hi Phil,
It's been an awfully long time since I was on here. Just had the urge to get back on today.
I donated at The Victoria General in Halifax, Nova Scotia. i actually live in NB but they don't do transplants in my province.
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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH MEDICAL CENTER , GREAT STAFF AND VERY INVOLVED WITH EACH PROCESS OF THE WAY , IM 24 SO THAT WAS VERY COMFORTING HAVING THE EXPERIENCE AND PROFESSIONALISM OF SUCH A MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS, BUT QUESTION EVERYONE I DONATED 2008 MY DOCTOR SAID THEIR WOULD BE A CHEMICAL IMBALANCE IN MY BODY, DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT CHEMICALS THOSE MIGHT BE
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I'm not sure what "chemical imbalance" the doctor might have been referring to. Many donors report a higher-than-normal creatinine in the blod for some time after donation. And some donors may have trouble with adrenaline if the flow of that hormone is distrubed from the adrenal gland near the removed kidney. That's all I can think of at present.
best wishes,
Fr. Pat
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New York, NY - Weill-Cornell
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I donated at Johns Hopkins on Feb. 14, 2009. I was the non-directed donor in which 6 recipients received a kidney that day. I was treated very well. I cannot relate to those posting that felt they did not receive the care they felt they deserved. I am currently in a living donor study at JH.
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I donated at the Cleveland Clinic on December 12, 2011. Absolutely fantastic staff and facility. The 4 days that I was in the hospital weren't exactly my happiest (mainly due to a previously unknown allergy to morphine....that was fun ::)). However, the nurses were absolutely amazing. Incredibly caring and courteous.
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Hi! First post here. I'm 2 and a half weeks post-op. I donated at Rush University, Chicago on December 28, 2011. I spent New Years Eve in the hospital, but I really just slept for 4 days so I don't feel like I missed much! ;D I donated to my (step) sister who is two years older than me. I was the first one tested and fortunately we were a match! My sister is doing great, and I am doing well. I still have some pain and unfortunately they had to keep me in the hospital longer because they couldn't find a pain medication that worked for me. I got sick on the morphine and Norco and Tylenol doens't work for me, so I'm stuck with Ultram, which doesn't work really well either. It's OK, but Aleve, or Alevel-like medications work better. Unfortunately it's bad for the kidney so I can't take it. :'(
I went back to work on Monday, January 9th but the walking was too much so I took 3 more days off and went back on Friday. I've been well taken care of by family and my boyfriend, so I feel very fortunate.
Regarding Rush, I must say that they are the absolute BEST! This was not my first trip to a hospital, but every single individual, all the way down to the guys who come in to empty the garbage have been so AMAZING! The nurses and pct's really give you the attention you need and are really so caring. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and may just stop by to see some of the nurses and pct's that were so kind throughout my stay. AND, although I didn't eat for the first three or four days, I started nibbling on the food and it was fantastic! Seriously!
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UCHealth Anschutz in Aurora, CO. Staff treated me like royalty, and my only regret is that I don't have another kidney to give!
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Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire.
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I donated at UF Health Shands in Gainesville, FL. Everyone involved in the process was wonderful to me, always willing to answer any question I had. UF Health is a teaching hospital, so perhaps this was a part of it - but I never felt like any question was a bother to anyone and everyone involved in the process was very responsive.