Key points from today’s guests:

Morning Rounds – Update on Current Events

Morgan Welch, Community Blood Center

• Community Blood Center declared a blood emergency yesterday due to low supply.
• The ideal level for the blood supply in the KC Metro is five to seven days. And most blood types are running at a lower than a three-day rate with some types including O negative, O positive and B negative running critically low at a one- to two-day supply.
• Some of the things that contribute to the shortage are the recent Labor Day holiday, back-to-school activities, a prolonged decrease in use in first-time donors, and different businesses and organizations not having returned since moving to remote or hybrid workplace settings.
• Starting this Sunday, there is a unique incentive offered through the end of October. All donors at blood drives or in our fixed center locations will be entered into a drawing to win Aerosmith tickets in November.
• Visit SaveALifeNow.org for more information.

Focus Topic

Matt Bolig, wheelchair athlete

• As a 21-year-old football player in college, a weightlifting accident left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
• Now, at 30, he is the quarterback for the local wheelchair football team that won the national championship last year. He also coaches other young athletes.
• He and his wife are looking at starting a family, but with paralysis from the waist down, he sought the help of family planning specialists at The University of Kansas Health System.
• They are attempting their first IVF embryo transfer procedure next week.
• He is appreciative of Dr. Nangia, the team, his family and friends for the support.
• He said we never know where we're going to be tomorrow but to surround yourself with people that love you just as much as you love them and everything will turn out right.

Dr. Ajay Nangia, urologist, male infertility specialist, The University of Kansas Health System

• What an inspiration Matt is. He was a team player. He was a quarterback. He was a leader. He had lots of teammates. He had people he leaned on and they leaned on him.
• His story is a tragedy that is filled with subsequent inspiration, hope and giving forward. And that's a lesson to all of us -- even in your darkest moment. If you have the right people who can love you and support you that you can climb mountains, literally in a wheelchair.
• In terms of fertility treatment, we can “jumpstart” people with electricity or we can bypass all of that and do a biopsy of the testicle directly and get the sperm from that the intent is to get sperm, whether it's enough for artificial insemination, or IVF -- in vitro fertilization.
• It takes a collaborative efforts with other teams at The University of Kansas Health System to make this a success.
• We all need inspiration and hope. Matt is that person. Out of tragedy, out of suffering, comes inspiration. And with inspiration, sometimes comes hope, and opportunities that you didn't know you had going to have. We all have difficult stories. Every time I have a down moment, I think of my able-bodied friend Matt Bolig.

COVID Updates

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection prevention & control, The University of Kansas Health System

• COVID and influenza vaccinations should be arriving at The Health System soon.
• People can get both vaccines at the same time.
• For those who may have recently had COVID, they can wait a little longer to get the COVID vaccine for more enhanced protection.

Monday, September 18 at 8 a.m. CT is the next Morning Medical Update. Meet a man whose nationwide search for a prostate cancer cure led him to a unique treatment right here at home.

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