Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN)'s transplant team has been transforming hope into reality since July 1991, changing lives for patients with end-stage renal disease, giving them more tomorrows and a better quality of life.
In 2021 alone, 88 kidneys were transplanted by LVHN surgeons. Since 1991, more than 1,700 kidneys have been transplanted through the program. There's only one hospital/health care network transplant center in all of eastern Pennsylvania that performs more.
There are several factors involved in that volume, based on LVHN's years of experience and expertise with successful transplants. LVHN accepts good donors, particularly deceased donors, that other centers may not. It also accepts more difficult transplant cases, multiple transplants or challenging anatomy for example, that lesser experienced centers can't chance. In addition, LVHN performs transplants on weekends and holidays where other centers may not.
Consequently, LVHN performs 25 percent of its entire transplant list each year, compared to about 13 percent for all comparable centers locally and nationally. Success rates are high at about 94 percent.
Much has changed since LVHN began its transplant program 31 years ago. Patient and kidney survival is improved, hospital stays are shorter, and there are better immunosuppressive drugs making transplants more effective and safer, with fewer side effects.
There is more, including advancements in minimally invasive living donor surgery.
Transplants continued in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-transplant vaccinations were provided to protect organ recipients. Before vaccines were widely available, monoclonal antibodies were used to help protect recipients.
For the past 18 years, LVHN also has performed pancreas transplants. To date, LVHN has performed six pancreas transplants and 28 pancreas-kidney transplants.
LVHN performs pancreas transplants exclusively for people with type 1 diabetes who have significant kidney disease. Usually, they involve a simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant from the same deceased donor. Sometimes a patient will have a kidney transplant first, often from a living donor, followed by a pancreas transplant that can occur months or even years later.
The goal is to eliminate the kidney disease or failure while providing an internal source of self-regulating insulin, which also eliminates the diabetes. There aren't many centers of any size doing these transplants because these are very difficult cases. Again, because of LVHN's years of experience and expertise, it is able to help these patients.
The secret to success
Michael Moritz, MD, LVPG Transplant Surgery, heads up the LVHN transplant program and says the goal is to perform kidney transplants for as many people as possible. That goal is met, says Moritz, because the transplant team and everyone involved in a transplant patient's care works tirelessly in a culture dedicated to exceptional care.
“We're not making decisions on whether something will be good statistically,” says Moritz. “Yes, we want to have good transplant outcomes, but we focus on getting the most from every donation and transplant opportunity. We're performing twice as many transplants as national statistics predict we should based on the number of patients on our waiting list.”
Moritz has been a transplant surgeon since 1986 and says the surgeon's role, while critical, is just one part of the overall success. The LVHN program is carried out by a large team consisting of transplant coordinators to nutritionists, nurses, social workers, nephrologists and much more. At LVHN, Moritz says, it's a “well-oiled machine.”
“We work really hard. We sacrifice a lot of weekends,” he says, adding that playing such an important role in changing someone's life is gratifying for the entire team.
An inside perspective
Sonja Handwerk has been an LVHN transplant coordinator for 20 years, working with living donors as part of her job and following up with donors after surgery. A living donor is someone who donates one of his or her kidneys to someone in need of a kidney who is a biological match. Donors can change their minds, but few do. Handwerk says just two have done so in her career at LVHN.
“It makes you realize there are good people in the world. We just don't hear enough about them. It's very emotional,” says Handwerk.
Susan Eckhart is a clinical post-transplant coordinator. A registered nurse, she's been with the LVHN transplant program since the beginning. Recipients are monitored for the lifetime of their transplanted kidney.
Eckhart, a recipient of the Nightingale Award of Pennsylvania for a clinical practice registered nurse, says she loves the personal connections with patients and their families. “To have such a devastating event affect a family and result in someone living a healthier and longer life is pretty amazing, and I'm proud to be part of that,” Eckhart says.
Patrice Pfeiffenberger, transplant program director since October 2019, says everyone on the transplant team is there for the right reason – patient care. “All of that is a lot of work. You have to really be invested in what you do. It's exceptionally rewarding. You're literally giving people a second chance at life,” she says.
Pfeiffenberger has worked in other transplant programs and says LVHN's program, with hundreds of years of combined experience among its staff, is a gem. “It is truly one of the most talented, if not the most talented team, I've ever worked with,” she says.
Moritz says LVHN's transplant team culture looks to make patient care as seamless and effortless as possible. That comes from experience. “You walk into any component of this transplant program, and you're not going to be the first one there. Our staff knows how to take care of you,” he says.
For more information about transplants at LVHN, visit LVHN.org/transplant.
Lehigh Valley Health Network | lvhn.org
This post is a sponsored collaboration between Lehigh Valley Health Network and Lehigh Valley Style.
