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Liveblogging a kidney transplant
June 14, 2006
It might be a first in the world of blogs, but Jeremy Floyd is liveblogging his brother, Doug’s, kidney transplant, which is happening this morning. The University of Tennesee hospital has free wifi and that enables Jeremy to keep friends (like me) and family up-to-date on the latest news as he hears it.
At 6:00 am a local television station is going to come and conduct interviews on both Izaak and Doug. The operation will likely begin around 8:00 and they expect Izaak to be in Surgery for approximately 4 hours. The kidney will actually be out of his body for about 1 hour and then they will begin the task of attaching the kidney to Doug. Doug’s surgery is expected to take a bit longer but they should both return to their respective rooms by late afternoon. They are trying to place their rooms side by side, but that has not happened as of yet.
Odd fact: Doug will have the kidney on the front beside his stomach. Stomach punches will be strictly forbidden after the surgery, but kidney punches will now be allowed–who knew?
Even after Doug and his donor Izaak left their rooms for surgery, the updates keep coming via the donor coordinator at the hospital:
Kathie, the donor coordinator, just called and said that the anesthesia has begun to take effect and the guys were joking with one another in an inhebriated state until consciousness slipped away. They are now asleep and Dr. Grande (sp?) is beginning the procedure. He will be performing the harvest and the implant.
For the backstory on Doug, his condition and his heroic donor, Jeremy has written up a nice summary posted under the title Sacrifice:
Then one brave young man from our small church community committed to donate his own kidney to his lifelong friend, mentor, and pastor. Izaak Standridge, 21, a rising junior at Maryville College took a different course than most College students his age. Rather than work internships, travel, or kick back, Izaak sacrificed his own kidney and summer for the benefit of Doug.
I’m not real big into liveblogging, especially conferences, but this is one use that is tremendously beneficial to people like me who want to keep abreast of the latest news, but don’t want to bother friends who are already at heightened level of anxiousness. Thanks to Jeremy for doing this and most importantly, all the best to both Doug and Izaak.