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Intermountain Healthcare experiences record number of transplants in 2020
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Sam Hoopes
SALT LAKE CITY At 11, Sam Hoopes began taking medication for a stomach condition.
He didn’t realize then what it would lead to today, nor did he understand the number of lives it would impact.
Hoopes was the first of many successful live liver transplants performed by doctors at Intermountain Healthcare after hospitals opened back up for surgeries after COVID-19 shut down hospitals last spring. The conditions of the pandemic actually created an environment in which the organ transplant program thrived.
Intermountain reported a record 222 adult patient abdominal organ transplants in 2020, far surpassing the 186 transplants the year before, which was also a record.
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In the early days of the pandemic, organ donation and transplantation screeched to a halt. Hospitals were at full capacity with an onslaught of COVID-19 patients. Concerns ran high about exposing vulnerable patients to the virus through the organs they d receive or during inpatient stays.
But transplants picked back up in the second half of last year. The move marked a promising sign for organ procurement organizations that work to connect as many donors as possible to the tens of thousands of patients whose life depends on them, as well as for the transplant teams that perform the procedures.
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Covid-19: California, With 50,000 Lost, Has More Deaths Than Any Other State
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April 1, 2021, 10:12 a.m. ETApril 1, 2021, 10:12 a.m. ET
A study that looked at the broad rollout of the Pfizer vaccine confirms that it is highly effective. The U.S. plans to send millions of masks to vulnerable communities.
Here’s what you need to know:
“It’s really hard to put all of it into words.”
It was December, as Covid-19 deaths were besieging California, and Helen Cordova, an intensive care unit nurse in Los Angeles, was trying to describe what it was like.
“This is a very real disease,” Ms. Cordova said. “Those images of inside of hospitals, that’s very accurate.”