{"id":33149,"date":"2023-10-31T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=33149"},"modified":"2023-11-01T01:44:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T01:44:48","slug":"lifesaving-teamwork-by-houston-va-transplant-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=33149","title":{"rendered":"Lifesaving teamwork by Houston VA transplant team"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early October, a highly-skilled transplant team at Michael E. DeBakey VA<\/a> in Houston faced an incredible and unexpected challenge.\u00a0The team, made up of top surgeons, transplant physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses and technical professionals was called upon to perform a heart transplant, a multi-organ kidney\/liver\u00a0transplant, two kidney transplants, and two liver transplants \u2026 all in four days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a result of teamwork and a shared commitment to caring for those who have served, six Veterans\u2019 lives were changed forever.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a>
Nurses Melchor Francisco and Adonis Abella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe stars were truly aligned when so many donor organs became available and all the Veterans were cleared for transplants,\u201d said Dr. Venkat Ramanathan, chief of Houston VA\u2019s Transplant Program.\u00a0\u201cAs the organs became available one by one, our incredible team immediately jumped at the chance to take on this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having performed more than 359 surgeries since Houston VA began doing transplants in 2008, the medical center\u2019s transplant teams have changed the lives of hundreds of Veterans and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerforming six transplants in just a few days was truly a labor of love.\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cMany of our Veteran patients have complicated medical conditions directly related to their military service,\u201d said Dr. Ronald Cotton, surgical director of Houston VA\u2019s Liver and Kidney Transplant Program and associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. \u201cThrough our transplant program, we are able to do right by these Veterans and give them a chance at more fulfilling and longer lives.\u00a0Performing six transplants in just a few days was truly a labor of love for our team at Houston VA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melchor Francisco\u00a0and Adonis Abella, experienced scrub nurses, were thrilled to participate in some of the transplant surgeries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on-call over the weekend and was really excited to hear that we may be able to perform back-to-back transplants,\u201d Francisco said. \u201cThe most rewarding part of my job is knowing I get to contribute to saving the lives of Veterans. We treat heroes here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrub nurses assist surgeons by prepping and passing tools and medical equipment to the surgeon and monitoring the patients\u2019 conditions during surgery.\u00a0They are prepared to switch to lifesaving procedures at a moment\u2019s notice, making their jobs challenging and sometimes quite stressful.\u00a0According to Abella, the fast-paced and high-pressure nature of the operating room has created a special camaraderie among the members of the Houston VA transplant team, allowing them to work together for the good of the Veterans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn honor to care for Veterans and see their strength and bravery up close.\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen we got into the operating room for the first surgery, we knew it was going to be a long day,\u201d Abella said.\u00a0\u201cDepending on the case, each of these surgeries can go on for up to 10 hours.\u00a0We all supported each other to keep our focus on the Veteran and get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Houston<\/a>
The transplant team at Houston VA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Although all six transplant surgeries went well, the Houston VA transplant team\u2019s job is far from done.\u00a0They will follow each of the six Veterans closely, celebrate their recovery milestones and be there with them and their families every step of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt VA, we are often able to enfranchise patients who may not be candidates to receive an organ in other community programs,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cIt\u2019s truly an honor to care for Veterans and see their strength and bravery up close.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early October, a highly-skilled transplant team at Michael E. DeBakey VA in Houston faced an incredible and unexpected challenge.\u00a0The team, made up of top surgeons, transplant physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses and technical professionals was called upon to perform a heart transplant, a multi-organ kidney\/liver\u00a0transplant, two kidney transplants, and two liver transplants \u2026 all in four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,64,764],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-inside-veterans-health","category-transplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33158,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33149\/revisions\/33158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}