00:00Hello everybody, Andrew Saltonis from 97.5 The Fanatic for another edition of our Stay Well Health Chat.
00:07I absolutely love my friends from the Virtua Health team. I do these every single month and every single month I learn more and more.
00:14You know, coming from a family with a medical background, my mom's a nurse, my wife's a nurse, so I love this kind of stuff.
00:20And I always appreciate speaking to people from different fields all across Virtua and learning a lot about our health system and how to keep ourselves healthier.
00:29And today I'm joined by Dr. Anita Mayrothra, who is a transplant nephrologist at Virtua Advanced Transplant and Organ Health.
00:37Doc, how are you doing today?
00:38I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. March is kidney month, so this is perfect timing. Yes.
00:45Yeah, great timing. So that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about our kidneys.
00:48So what should people know about kidney health and then what should people also know about kidney disease?
00:54So your kidneys are very powerful organs. They're critical to living a healthy life.
01:02Everybody is born with two kidneys. Really, you only need one good functioning kidney, though, to survive.
01:08But the kidneys are responsible for a lot of different activities in the body.
01:13So, for example, they help to remove toxins from the body.
01:16They also produce hormones that regulate blood pressure.
01:19They produce a hormone that tells your bone marrow to make red blood cells, which delivers oxygen all throughout your body.
01:26So they're critical to living a normal, healthy life.
01:30But really the biggest thing is many people who have kidney disease don't know they have kidney disease because it's a silent condition.
01:38It comes on insidiously, very slowly.
01:41And in the early stages, there are really no symptoms.
01:43So, in fact, of the estimated 37 million Americans with chronic kidney disease, 90% of them don't know that they even have it.
01:51So how would you know?
01:54Let's say I'm just going to the doctors.
01:55Like, how would I know if I have something wrong with my kidneys?
01:59So oftentimes the earliest sign is just an abnormal blood or urine test.
02:04So it's really important if you have any conditions that may predispose you to kidney disease, like high blood pressure or diabetes, to see your doctor regularly so they can do those blood and urine tests.
02:16Okay.
02:16So if we find out that I do have some sort of kidney disease, why is transplant so necessary for patients with kidney disease?
02:23So treatment or medication is able to sometimes slow or halt the progression of chronic kidney disease, but there's nothing that can reverse it once it already progresses to the stage of end-stage kidney disease or kidney failure.
02:39So patients with kidney failure need dialysis in order to stay alive.
02:44The dialysis machines help remove toxins from their body, and they do these treatments every day, at least three times a week, but sometimes every day, and these treatments are very taxing on the body.
02:58So getting a kidney transplant enables these patients to come off dialysis and to live a healthy and relatively normal life.
03:05Which is great.
03:06So let's say I need both kidneys removed, and now I need a kidney.
03:10You said I need at least one operating kidney to keep going.
03:14What should people know about kidney organ donation, either the person that needs the kidney or the person that's willing to donate their kidney?
03:21Yeah.
03:22So actually, most of the time, we don't remove the old kidneys.
03:24Okay.
03:25We just put a new kidney in, and you end up with three kidneys.
03:28The old kidneys are only removed if they have cancer, you know, or something like that, where their potential would be to spread all over the body.
03:37So usually somebody who needs a kidney transplant will just get an additional third kidney.
03:41And that transplant, that third kidney, can come from somebody who's died and who's decided to donate their organs following their death.
03:51Or it can come from a living kidney donor, because all of us have two kidneys.
03:55So what's cool is a healthy person, somebody who doesn't have high blood pressure or diabetes, can give up one kidney and live a normal life with their one kidney.
04:05And allow somebody else to live, you know, a normal, healthy life by sharing their spare, so to speak.
04:13So if there is someone on the transplant waiting list, I know that might not necessarily be quick.
04:19It might not be a day or two.
04:20It might take some time.
04:22What are some ways they can be proactive about receiving that new organ?
04:25Yeah, so unfortunately, the transplant organ waiting list in the United States is very long, and there just aren't enough donors, particularly deceased donors, to go around.
04:37So the number of people on the transplant list far outweighs the number of kidneys that are available.
04:42There's over 100,000 people in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant.
04:47So it's really important to be proactive about organ donation.
04:55So if you have friends and family members who are healthy and they're willing to consider donating a kidney, you want to speak up and ask them to share their spare.
05:05So we encourage living kidney donation.
05:07We encourage people, you know, of all walks and ages and medical conditions to consider being an organ donor when they pass away.
05:16So when you go to the DMV and you're registering for your license, you can choose to be an organ donor.
05:22Not every person who passes away is able to donate their organs, and that's part of the reason why there's such an organ shortage.
05:29But if you have expressed your wishes ahead of your death, it makes it easier, you know, at the time of your passing for your family to consent to having your organs donated.
05:39So we encourage people to talk about organ donation before it's too late, you know, to sign up to be an organ donor after their passing.
05:47And certainly if they're healthy, to consider giving up one of their kidneys.
05:51They only need one to help somebody else return, you know, return back to a normal life and come off of dialysis.
05:59Now, before I get more information on how you can donate, I'd love to get to know more about you, right?
06:05I think everybody respects nurses and doctors.
06:07At least I would hope so, right?
06:08Everybody should respect nurses and doctors, everybody in the medical field.
06:11But for you, what is the most rewarding part about your job?
06:16So the most rewarding part of my job is to see a smile on that patient's face after transplant surgery when they realize they've had a successful kidney transplant and they're not going to need dialysis anymore.
06:29And that smile, you know, on their face, on their family members' faces, because dialysis is really a very taxing, it's a life-saving therapy for sure, but it is a taxing therapy.
06:39And it really consumes so much of your time.
06:42You know, patients on dialysis can't travel, they're, you know, attached to a machine several times per week, and it limits their ability to work or go to school.
06:52And so seeing a patient realize that they're not going to have to do that for the rest of their life and, you know, the wheels turning in their mind thinking, oh, now I can go to Florida, I can go visit my grandparent, my grandchildren, I can go back to work, I can go back to school.
07:08I mean, that's really transformative.
07:09That's really the most rewarding thing that I do.
07:11But one other thing I will say that I find maybe not rewarding, but it restores my faith in humanity, is to see how many people who are healthy are willing to be living kidney donors.
07:23You know, I have seen perfect strangers donate to, you know, people who are in need for nothing in return other than just to see them live a healthy and happy life.
07:35That's beautiful.
07:36I love hearing that.
07:37Doc, thank you so much for coming on today.
07:39I really appreciate it.
07:40And by the way, if you are interested in saving a life, like you just heard Doc say, sometimes it's just total strangers that are helping save each other.
07:47If you want to try to save someone by becoming a living kidney donor, please contact Virtua's living donor coordinator at 856-796-9376.
07:57I'll say that number again, 856-796-9376.
08:02And you can also get more information on transplantation by visiting Virtua.org slash V-A-T-O-H.
08:10That's Virtua.org slash V-A-T-O-H.
08:14Dr. Mayotra, I really appreciate you coming on today.
08:17Thank you so much.
08:18Thank you so much, Andrew.
08:19I appreciate it.
08:20Thank you very much.
Comments