Transplant Services and Philanthropy

Outstanding care close to home

 Before Piedmont became Georgia’s second liver
transplantation center, several hundred patients left the state each year for this complex surgery and the intense, extended treatment that surrounds it.  Now they have local access to care of the highest quality for liver as well as kidney and pancreas transplants.  Philanthropic support has been instrumental in establishing and expanding these services throughout the state.

Time is everything.

For Georgians requiring an organ transplant, Piedmont’s Transplant Services are all about time.  When an organ becomes available, we have round-the-clock capability to act.  For the extensive consultation required before and after, patients get in their cars instead of flying out of state.  Through our growing satellite consultation network, much of a patient’s care can be managed through referring doctors near the patient’s home, if he or she lives outside metro Atlanta.  Above all, transplants at Piedmont mean more quality time in life.

Piedmont Hospital has been involved in organ transplantation for more than two decades.  Since establishing our own program in 1999, transplant has grown rapidly.  We exceed the national average for transplants involving living donors.  Piedmont was the first Georgia hospital to perform laparoscopic kidney removal with a living donor.  Piedmont doctors were the first in the state to perform a simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplant.

Generosity changes the landscape.

The Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust established our Mason Transplant Clinic and funded a Chair in Transplant Services, held by Carlos Zayas, M.D., one of the nation’s top transplant nephrologists.  The Clinic provides our transplant patients with one-stop pre-surgery evaluation and post-surgery outpatient follow-up care.  The Mason Trust continues to empower our growth in transplant services.

Due to the expense involved both for a hospital and its patients, a broad base of philanthropic support is an essential element of an outstanding transplant program.

Opportunities:  For an extended time after transplant surgery, a patient must be on expensive medications.  The cost exceeds what insurance will cover.  For this reason, transplant programs require that a waiting-list patient have $5,000 to $10,000 in advance for essential follow-up medicine. In some cases, meeting this threshold is a daunting task.  A fund to assist patients with medication costs will relieve many patients and their families of a significant burden at a difficult time.

In a similar vein, a housing fund is needed to support patients in getting the after-care they require in an affordable manner.  Following transplant surgery, patients must spend up to two weeks in closely monitored after-care.  This involves daily outpatient visits and proximity to Piedmont so that immediate help is available if a problem develops.  Our goal is to have a housing fund to help non-local patients cover their post-surgical residential costs, which typically are not reimbursed by insurance. 

On the clinical side, having an on-site histocompatibility lab will allow Transplant Services to expedite critical lab results and achieve important efficiencies.  An HLA lab monitors antibody fluctuations pre- and post-surgery.  This work currently is outsourced, costing nearly $2 million a year.

“Giving and Receiving”

Two years after receiving two liver transplants at Piedmont Hospital, 28-year old Lauren Donkar participated in the National Kidney Foundation’s 2008 U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburg, an Olympic-style event for athletes who have received a life-saving organ transplant.  Lauren won the silver medal in women’s tennis and also competed in a 5K race.

For many, this accomplishment would have sufficed in marking a return to good health and to celebrate a life that almost ended far too early.  However, Lauren and her husband, whose health insurance covered the majority of her bills, wanted to do something to help less fortunate families facing transplantation without health insurance or savings.  In 2007, they hosted their first annual golf tournament to support Piedmont’s transplant program and the Georgia Transplant Foundation, raising $20,000 and last year raised over $25,000.

Contributions to Piedmont’s transplant program:  cover the cost beyond what insurance will cover of expensive medications patients must take following transplantation; provide housing for patients and their families who do not live in Atlanta but require follow up care; and will create an on-site histo-liposetic antigen (HLA) lab to expedite critical lab results and achieve the best results for our patients.

Read Lauren’s whole story, learn more about the golf tournament at www.chippinginforlife.org, or make a contribution directly to Piedmont’s Transplant Program.