Local News in Brief : Organ Recipient Released
California’s first pancreas-kidney transplant patient has been discharged from UCLA Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said Friday.
The 33-year-old Los Angeles man, who requested anonymity, underwent the six-hour operation Nov. 13 and was released in good condition Wednesday, said spokesman Jon Marmor.
More than 1,200 pancreas transplants, including about 600 pancreas-kidney transplants, have been performed worldwide, but the surgery at UCLA was the first of its kind in California, Marmor said. More than 10,000 kidney transplants are performed annually.
“The patient is a diabetic who had suffered a number of complications over the years,” Marmor said. “In addition to having to take daily, self-administered injections of insulin for the last 19 years to regulate his blood sugar levels, he also had been on dialysis since April.
“Since the combined transplant, the patient has not needed insulin or dialysis,” Marmor said.
The man requires lifelong, daily doses of drugs to prevent his body from rejecting the organs, the spokesman said.
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