Duke Health Blog
Stories and news about treatment advances that improve your health and quality of life

Transplant

Read about people whose lives were changed with transplant surgery at Duke, and learn how Duke transplant specialists use new procedure and techniques to give people a second chance at life.

Showing 37 - 48 of 51 results
Donated Kidney Saves Best Friend’s Life
Donated Kidney Saves Best Friend’s Life

Glenn Graham and Cecil Hogue have been best friends since third grade. That friendship took a step beyond the routine in 2018 when Graham donated a kidney to s ...

Duke Performs North Carolina’s First Abdominal Wall Transplant
Duke Performs North Carolina’s First Abdominal Wall Transplant

Johnathan Nauta, 37, had suffered with intestinal obstructions for most of his life. After more than 20 surgeries failed to fix the problem, he had run out of ...

Second Opinion at Duke Leads to Successful Liver Transplant
Second Opinion at Duke Leads to Successful Liver Transplant

Lemuel Stewart was on track to being approved for a liver transplant when he got the bad news: His age and previous heart surgery disqualified him for a transp ...

Swift Path to Kidney Transplant, After a Decade of Kidney Disease
Swift Path to Kidney Transplant, After a Decade of Kidney Disease

At age 27, Barb Lavalette learned she had a disease that, over time, could severely damage her kidney function. For more than a decade, she managed her kidney ...

Liver Transplant Saves Critically Ill Patient
Liver Transplant Saves Critically Ill Patient

Ray Thompson was a teenager when doctors first suspected something was wrong with his liver. He was an adult when he learned his condition was autoimmune hepat ...

Living Healthy After Liver and Kidney Transplant at Duke
Living Healthy After Liver and Kidney Transplant at Duke

Kenn Wiggins, 40, enjoyed five years of good health after undergoing a liver transplant near his home in Charlotte, NC. However, when his autoimmune hepatitis ...

Duke University Hospital Has Nation's Best Outcomes for Adult Liver Transplants
Duke University Hospital Has Nation's Best Outcomes for Adult Liver Transplants

Duke University Hospital has the nation's best outcomes for adult liver transplants from deceased donors, according to data from 2016.

Duke Children's Hospital performs its first combined heart-and-kidney transplant (video)
Duke Children's Hospital performs its first combined heart-and-kidney transplant (video)

Duke Children’s Hospital performed its first heart-plus-other-organ transplant, giving Shania Harris, 9, a new heart and kidney. Watch Shania's story.

Duke Nurse Donates Kidney to Husband, Also a Duke Nurse
Duke Nurse Donates Kidney to Husband, Also a Duke Nurse

Duke life flight nurse Nichole Diacumski carried out her most personal rescue mission when she donated a kidney to her husband, Jason, a fellow Duke nurse. The ...

Weight Loss Leads to Successful Liver Transplant, Better Health
Weight Loss Leads to Successful Liver Transplant, Better Health

At nearly 100 pounds overweight and suffering from severe liver disease, David Tedrow could not get the life-saving transplant he desperately needed until he l ...

Good Samaritans Give Kidneys to Two Strangers in Need
Good Samaritans Give Kidneys to Two Strangers in Need

February marks 50 years since the first kidney transplant was performed at Duke and in North Carolina. Recently, a Good Samaritan started a chain reaction that ...

A Double Organ Transplant for Christmas
A Double Organ Transplant for Christmas

On March 8, 2012, 33-year-old Stephen “Mac” McKiernan woke up and knew he didn’t feel right. As he was dressing, he noticed how swollen his feet were. “I could ...