Scientists Are Teaching the Body to Accept New Organs

Ah people do live to be old with only one transplant. There are many kidney recipients that are over 30 years out and some over 40 years. The problem is no one place keeps the data on all these transplants. . The recipient of my kidney has had it for 38 years now and only takes 4 mg of prednisone a day for rejection, now 75 he is still doing fine.

Mr. Schaffer, was the perfect guinea pig for a fabulous experiment. I wish him well. For the doctors it was a chance to effectively repair and study a piece of the human body. The puzzling thing for me as I age, is why we all seem to want to live longer and longer with leakier systems. I get the excitement of the researchers as they will suddenly have willing humans to work on. But how about the rest of us, why do we seek longevity? I know I want to finally live far away from medical help. When an opportunity nears, I'm simply going to bungy jump into the unknown. After all these years of living cautiously, it might be my one chance to be wild....

Medical technology is nice, especially for the tech company's shareholders and the bottom lines of physicians, but once again we have a situation where what's being treated are the symptoms of a disease (the inability of the liver to function normally) as opposed to the causes of the fatty liver disease, which is a bad, bad diet. The Standard American Diet (SAD) leads millions in the country to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Alcohol is not the driver, fructose is, which we have a superabundance of thanks to our farm support policies (which favor industry over public health). Where do you think this epidemic of FLD is coming from? It's the "food" (cough) we're being sold. Returning to our patient, instead of pushing the latest technology, as sexy and as remunerative as it is, physicians could advise their patients to change to a whole foods plant based diet. Alas, there is no phalanx of lobbyists for the broccoli industry, so this will never happen. Another victory for the medical/technology/pharmaceutical complex, another death for the rest of us. Free markets, baby. Liberty, baby. Yeah.

What a man!, “My goal is to live to be 100 and get shot in bed by a jealous husband,” Mr. Schaffer said. I wish you well Michael Schaffer.

Good for you Michael. You are a brave son of a gun.

I need your help in finding a living kidney donor, please search for "donor4luis" for more info.

I was successfully weaned off immunosuppressants (Prograf) following my liver transplant performed on Christmas Eve 2001 by world renowned transplant surgeon Andreas Tzakis, then at the University of Miami and now with Cleveland Clinic. At the time of my transplant I had induction treatment with alemtuzumab (Campath), which had previously been used with kidney transplants, though I was the first liver transplant patient. I have now been off anti rejection meds (I was only given Prograf) for over 10 years. While at Cleveland Clinic Dr. Tzakis is now focused on his continuing research into uterine transplants. In honor of Dr. Tzakis' work at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he was the founding Chairman of the Miami Transplant Institute, more than 150 donors and grateful patients helped establish the Andreas G. Tzakis Chair in Transplant Surgery, now held by Dr. Rodrigo M. Vianna.

Experimentation is great! That's why I have my daughter's kidney she donated in 2011. I regularly visit my nephrologist who gives me good reports of my kidney function. The anti-rejection meds did give me insulin-dependent diabetes which I treat by limiting sweets and riding my stationery bike frequently to lower my blood sugar. So happy that Mr. Schaffer is doing well !!!

If this system is unable to get heart and lung transplant recipients completely off immunosupressing drugs, perhaps it could be used to lower the dosages and reduce the cumulative negative effect?