The Registry, still housed at Jefferson, tracks the effects of pregnancy on women who received organ transplants and later become pregnant as well as male recipients who have fathered children, according to a press release from the hospital.
At the event, a dozen children crowded around a computer monitor and video-Skyped Joseph Edward Murray, 92, the first person to successfully perform a kidney transplant, in 1954. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
“What’s it feel like — are you proud?,” asked the 16 year-old son of a transplant recipient. “I’m not proud, I’m grateful,” Murray said. “He was so utterly delighted to see these children,” said Melissa O’Neill, a former transplant patient from Lansdale.
The registry allows transplant recipients considering parenthood a chance to review issues such as changes in health, changes in medications, the health of the baby, and other issues of women who have undergone similar transplants and go on to have children.
Melinda O’Neill, a living donor kidney transplant recipient in 2000, attended the event with her husband Sean and children Lindsay, 5, and Nathan, 2. “For me, it was like, confidence. Is it a good idea for me to have a baby? It allowed me to look at other women and think it’s going to be ok.”
“Connecting with Dr. Murray and with the many families was especially meaningful for all of us,” said Vincent T. Armenti, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the NTPR. “Transplantation works, bringing good health and new life as evidenced by the gathering today.”
The event was organized by Armenti and his staff in the transplant division at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
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