Key points from today’s guests:

Jeff Hull, living liver recipient

• Jeff became gravely ill and needed a liver transplant. His son stepped up to be a donor, but they were not the same blood type.
• Jeff, living in Pennsylvania, found out he was getting a liver from a living donor from a man he had never met from Kansas.
• He promised to take good care of his donor’s liver and he has changed his diet and exercise habits to take care of himself and the new liver.

Susan Hull, Jeff’s wife

• Susan says they feel like they've been given such a gift because Jeff’s life was saved.
• He now has the opportunity to watch the grandchildren grow up and spend time outdoors.
• She said it takes special people like Jeff Risinger -- he is talked about in their house more than he could ever imagine because of what he did to save their family.

Jeff Risinger, living liver donor

• Jeff saw an ad on a computer about being a living liver donor. He finally clicked on the ad and felt like this was his calling to help other people.
• Recovery from his surgery was fine and he feels great now.
• He originally didn’t want to share this story, but realizes that others may want to learn more about this so they can be donors and help other people as well.
• He said he may have decided to donate his liver to a stranger then, but he is part of his family now.

Dr. Ryan Taylor, medical director, Liver Transplantation, The University of Kansas Health System

• There's still a great need from patients who need liver transplant here and within our area. There has been some changes on the national level that have changed how organs are shared, and that has impact how patients here in the Kansas City metro area have been able to access transplant.
• The MELD score is a calculation that takes five very common lab values. That number then can tell us how sick the patient is and we use that one number for rank ordering on the transplant list.
• Most of our patients that need a transplant are related to fatty liver disease and alcohol.
• Fatty liver is the number one cause of liver disease now in the United States. It has to do with our lifestyle, with our dietary choices, our activity levels, and some genetics.
• Too much good food and not enough exercise just contributes to all of that, and the liver just can't keep up with clearing the extra calories that are hanging around.

Dr. Timothy Schmitt, director of transplantation, The University of Kansas Health System

• The allocation had changed four years ago, and the number of patients we could transplant decreased. So we had to do multiple things to try to help our numbers like starting this Living Donor Program, which takes time because you have to train staff.
• Now, livers are allocated at a 500-mile concentric circle, so a lot of our donor livers now go to Chicago, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, and the bigger cities because they have more people on their list.
• For those who are interested in being donors, they can call the transplant center and talk to our living donor team. They can see if they can get screened, get evaluated, get educated, and that would be the start.
• I think it's just great to see the stories of the people involved -- the care, the giving, the donation -- and we just need more people to know that you can do it and to it's hard to deny why you did it after seeing the positive outcomes of what happened to Jeff’s family.

Dr. Sean Kumer, M.D., Ph.D., transplant surgeon; chief medical officer, Kansas City Division, The University of Kansas Health System

• The ideal living donor takes a hero like Jeff Risinger. These donors are undergoing an operation that they don’t need, so that makes them a hero because they are stepping up to save someone else’s life.
• They need to be healthy so that when a portion of their liver is removed, it can regenerate.
• The liver is an amazing organ. Within four to six weeks, it regenerates to about 90 percent of its original size.
• Not every transplant center has a living donation program. So it's about overcoming those fears. It’s about getting people in and getting educated about the process -- education is the first step.
• Donors are the hero of all this, and donation, whether it's living or deceased, is what keeps humanity alive. It's just an incredible gift.

Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 8 a.m. is the next Open Mics with Dr. Stites. Underserved and at higher risk, Latinos are both when it comes to infectious diseases and recognizing dementia. Dr. Stites details new programs and tools designed specifically for this population.

ATTENTION MEDIA: Please note access is with Microsoft Teams:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 235 659 792 451
Passcode: 6CSfGE

Download Teams | Join on the web

Or call in (audio only)

+1 913-318-8863,566341546#   United States, Kansas City

TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI

Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital

YouTube.com/kuhospital

Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.