(Press Release)

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS…The doctors at Texas Transplant Institute and the kidney transplant team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital made transplant history by performing the first donor exchange kidney transplant simultaneously in the same facility in Texas.

“This is a first for Texas, a first for our facility, and we are one of only a handful of facilities nationwide to have performed this procedure,” said Francis Wright, M.D., solid organ transplant program director and transplant surgeon. Four operating rooms and more than 30 medical staff members were involved in the surgery.

The exchange program is a new and innovative way to obtain donor organs, and it has the potential to significantly increase kidney transplants. Texas Transplant Institute is one of only a small number of programs in the U.S. that offer the paired exchange testing and transplant surgery. The program matches living donors who wish to give their kidney to a loved one but cannot because of blood or tissue incompatibility. The donors are exchanged, providing two kidney patients with a living donation and a second chance at life.

The first donor exchange kidney transplant couples are Ronnie Hueglar, Sr., 47, and his wife, Karen, 45 from Ingleside, Texas and Alicia White, 35, and her husband, Steve, 36, from Killeen, Texas. Mrs. Hueglar donated a kidney to Mrs. White, and Mr. White donated a kidney to Mr. Huegler. The procedures were performed on March 19, 2008 however, due to transplant protocols, the couples met for the first time today.

Mr. Hueglar has end-stage renal disease resulting from type 2 diabetes. He has been awaiting a kidney since December 2004. Mrs. White has end-stage renal disease from an unknown cause and has been on dialysis since September 2006.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), 75,878 people throughout the country currently are on the waiting list for a kidney. In Texas, 6,225 people are awaiting kidneys and 2,722 of them are in San Antonio and South Texas. Donor exchange kidney tranplantation is a new option for people on the waiting list. The exchange program greatly broadens the pool of organs available from living donors. Advances in living donor transplant technology have made the surgery less invasive and the pain easier to manage.

Factors that influenced Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital to offer the program include their waiting list of about 1,500 people, providing a large patient pool for finding pairs, and community support in this area of the country from family and friends willing to donate kidneys to loved ones. “With this community support making donated kidneys available, our patient pool and the benefits of living donation, we knew that we had to find a way to use healthy donors,” said Adam Bingaman, M.D., PhD, director of the Texas Transplant Institute Paired Exchange Program and a transplant surgeon.

The Texas Transplant Institute kidney transplant program is the largest program in Texas and ranks among the nation’s top 20 for patient volume. Since 1984 over 2,600 kidney transplants have been performed and they include more than 1,000 living donor transplants.

Persons interested in the paired kidney transplant exchange program, should call the Live Donor Hot Line at (210) 575-4483 or (800) 888-0402 toll free.