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Scientists Discover Multiple Pathways Through Which an Ancient Fruit Protects the Cardiovascular System For centuries, pomegranates have held a special place in Middle Eastern and
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What Happened? Hansa Biopharma, a Swedish company, announced that the first patient in Australia has successfully received a kidney transplant after being treated with a
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As reported on News Medical, researchers are highlighting a new class of therapies that could improve outcomes for people living with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC),
Transplant didn’t end their medical story. It gave them the chance to keep writing it.
Because the truth of it is, there is no “after” transplant.
There are still labs. Medications. Appointments. Biopsies. Infections. Rejection. Side effects. Numbers to watch and symptoms you learn never to ignore.
There are still good labs and scary labs. Routine appointments and unexpected admissions. Holding your breath when the phone rings after bloodwork. Learning that “everything looks great” can be true while knowing you’ll still check again next week.
Transplant can mean getting to grow up. Going to school. Playing sports. Celebrating birthdays. Making plans for a future that once felt uncertain.
And that is the incredible gift of it.
But transplant isn’t an ending.
It’s the chance to keep going.
Mark your calendar! Sept 16th #LiverTransplant BARE Inc.🌿 Preparing Them to Take the Lead
Ever wonder what transition to adult care looks like for your teen or young adult? This webinar has the answers. Both parents and teens have their own programs, setting the whole family up for better success.
Join Transplant Families (a program of the Children's Organ Transplant Association - COTA), in partnership with the American Society of Transplantation, for a free interactive webinar for parents and caregivers of teen and young adult transplant recipients.
We'll cover:
How can I help my child build independence safely?
What skills do they need to manage their transplant care?
How does my role change as they transition to adult care?
Featuring the AST Transition Toolkit.
September 16, 2026
3:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM ET
Free, registration required
Register here: bit.ly/asttransitioncheck
#TransplantFamilies #OrganTransplant #TransitionToAdultCare #COTA #ASTToolkit #CaregiverSupport
BARE Inc. #biliaryatresia #LiverDiseaseAt 48 years old, Nigel often looks back on his life with a sense of awe. He was born in Jamaica with biliary atresia, a rare, life-threatening liver condition in newborns where the bile ducts, the tubes that carry digestive fluid from the liver to the intestines, are blocked, scarred, or missing. This blockage traps bile inside the liver, causing rapid damage, severe scarring (cirrhosis), and eventual liver failure if left untreated.
When Nigel was a child, his mother brought him to New York in search of care, and at age 3, he underwent a Kasai procedure, a surgery that treats biliary atresia by replacing blocked bile ducts with a loop of the infant's own small intestine, that helped extend his life for several years. The procedure restores bile flow, slows liver damage, and can delay the need for a liver transplant. Nigel and his mother traveled back and forth from Jamaica to New York after the procedure for follow-up appointments with his pediatrician. But by the time Nigel was 11, doctors told him and his mother that without a liver transplant, he likely had less than a year to live.
Soon after, Nigel was placed on the national transplant waiting list. A few months later, the call came from the transplant team at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh that a liver was available. His mother had to move quickly, chartering a plane in the middle of the night from New York to Pittsburgh. He remembers flying through rain and thunderstorms, then landing in Pittsburgh, where an ambulance met him on the tarmac and brought him to UPMC Children’s Hospital. The surgery began in the wee hours of the morning on Sept. 9, 1990, and took 16 hours to complete.
After leaving the hospital, Nigel and his mother stayed in Pittsburgh for about three months while he recovered. During that time, he had to relearn how to walk after surgery. But eventually, he returned to Jamaica, went back to school, and continued life as a teenager, something that once felt far from guaranteed.
Now all these years later, Nigel has built a full life. He graduated from high school, lived in Florida, later moved to Georgia, married, and became a father of two children, a 21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. He works as a software developer and enjoys staying active through basketball and weight training. Looking back, those milestones feel especially meaningful to him. “It’s like, wow,” he said. “I’m able to accomplish all that I have accomplished with all that happened back then, and I am still here after all this time.”
Now, nearly 36 years after his liver transplant, Nigel says he is more appreciative of life than he was when he was younger. As a child, he often wondered why he had to go through so much. But with time, his perspective changed. “As I got older, I realize it’s actually remarkable that I’m still here,” he said. “That I survived all of this.”
He also thinks often about the donor who made his life possible. For anyone considering organ donation, his message is simple: “You’re giving somebody else a chance of life,” he said. “Be an organ donor if you can.”
Today, nearly four decades after receiving his transplant, Nigel continues to thrive, a testament to the lifelong impact pediatric transplantation can have on a child’s future.
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