500
INNOVATION
to heal patients and give them hope
Celebrating a
MILESTONE
Five hundred patients and counting! The kidney and pancreas transplantation
program at Scott & White is extending and saving many lives
the early hours of October
18, 2013, transplantation
surgeons Jacqueline Lappin,
MD, and Debra Doherty, MD,
performed a kidney transplant on the
500th patient to receive an organ in the
healthcare system’s kidney and pancreas
program. That morning, gospel singer
Johnny Ray Watson received a kidney
from 20-year-old Caleb Tate, a young
man Mr. Watson knew who had
just died tragically after a motorcycle
accident. In a poignant and generous
act, Robert and Darlene Tate, Caleb’s
In
parents, requested that Mr. Watson,
the family’s longtime friend, receive one
of Caleb’s kidneys. The Tates knew
this had been Caleb’s wish after the
young man and his family learned
prior to Caleb’s death that Mr. Watson
needed a transplant. Gifting an organ
to a particular person is called a
directed donation.
“We knew Caleb wanted it to
happen. He already said he wanted to
donate at least that one organ,” says Mr.
Tate. Caleb’s other organs were placed
soon after. The family does not know
who received these organs, but Mr. Tate
hopes to meet them some day.
Kidney and combined kidney/
pancreas transplants
Scott & White’s kidney and pancreas
transplant program was started by
transplant surgeon Gregory Jaffers,
MD, and nephrologist Mohanram
Narayanan, MD, in 1997. The team has
performed 537 kidney and/or pancreas
transplants. Drs. Lappin and Doherty
both joined the program in 2013, in
part because they were so impressed
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