Man is first Penn Medicine patient to receive robotic kidney transplant
By Stephanie Stahl
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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A Delaware musician has a new lease on life after a kidney transplant. It was an operation that involved a robot and social media.
This was a living donor transplant from a connection made on Facebook. It was performed at Penn Medicine with the help of a robot for the first time.
Alvin Fisher who suffered for years with kidney failure is back to playing music and enjoying life with his wife.
“I’m feeling great fantastic,” Fisher said.
The Delaware musician is the first patient at Penn Medicine to have a robotic kidney transplant in September.
“I was like OK, I’m a technical guy,” Fisher said. “I’m Star Trak all the way.”
His doctor, Salma Shaikhouni, says the robotic minimally invasive transplant helps patients with a quicker recovery.
“There isn’t a large incision to go in and instead a smaller incision to go in which means smaller scars but also easier healing for the patient,” Dr. Shaikhouni said.
Fisher didn’t want to wait on a transplant list instead he turned to Facebook and a day later a stranger came forward to offer her kidney.
“I was blown away actually,” Fisher said. “I broke down in tears.”
“I tell her all the time, ‘I love you’ I told her husband ‘don’t be jealous,'” he said.
Dr. Shaikhouni says getting a kidney from a living donor is usually quicker and better for the recipient. For the donor who can safely live with one kidney, robotics makes that surgery and recovery easier.
“For me, it’s very exciting to be able to care for patients on the other side and see them recover quicker,” Shaikhouni said.
For Fisher, having a robotic transplant with a living donor was a double dose of good fortune and that altruistic donor has now become a good friend. Sharing a special bond with a music man who has a lot to play for now.
Fisher has a website detailing his story and raising awareness about kidney transplants. He says he was lucky to find his donor through Facebook.
But there’s also something called a paired exchange, if your donor isn’t a match, their kidney goes to another recipient in exchange for a kidney that’s compatible to you.
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