On Friday, January 30, 2009. I visited the famous Cedars-Sinai Medical and Organ Transplant Center in Los Angeles to learn about the organ donor transplant process. I was accompanied by fellow La Cañadan and Girl Scout Leader Jacqueline Harris, who also happens to be a senior transplant educator for Astellas Pharma US, Inc., a leading organ transplant drug provider. I spent an entire day touring the dialysis center, the genetic laboratories, the hospital and its administrative offices.
At the Cedars-Sinai Hospital, I met an 18- year-old young woman named Rebecca and one of the transplant doctors assigned to her case. Rebecca, who was born without kidneys, recently was the recipient of her third kidney transplant. Prior to her transplant, Rebecca required frequent dialysis, a function ordinarily performed by properly functioning kidneys. Most patients with dysfunctional kidneys must come to the hospital three times each week and spend three hours on a dialysis machine, if and until a kidney becomes available.