Transplants

When Anne Peniazek decided to donate a kidney at age 65, the Narberth woman had bigger hopes than helping just one person. She and her surgeon James Lim of Lankenau Medical Center wanted to start a movement. Instead of arranging a typical kidney donation, Lim helped her start an open-ended kidney-donation chain, one of a small number in the United States. In December, Peniazek's kidney was given to Geoff Bowman of Philadelphia, who at age 32 had already had three transplants.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Two days after leaving Chestnut Hill for their new home in Meadowbrook, a bedroom community on the southeast side of Birmingham, the young couple were still adjusting to the climate change. "It was quite surreal moving from Philadelphia, where it was still chilly enough to wear a jacket, to a hot and humid Alabama that was being ripped apart by tornadoes," Daemian Moss recalled. Moss, a 26-year-old DirecTV technician, didn't think much of the weather when he headed out for work in Hueytown, Ala., on the morning of April 27. "The skies were dark, but it just looked to me like we might get a thunderstorm," he said.

A lot had to be going through Erik Compton's mind after he endured the second heart transplant of his life three years ago, a procedure that threatened his career in professional golf. Would he ever play again? If he did, would he have the stamina needed to grind for four consecutive days of tournament golf? He once was among the nation's top junior golfers, but would his game return to the level needed to earn a spot on the PGA Tour? On Sunday, 37 months after that second transplant, the 31-year-old Compton earned the biggest tournament title of his life, capturing the Mexico Open on the Nationwide Tour.

In a positive move for the region's transplant patients, the University of Pennsylvania is opening the city's first transplant house, capable of hosting nearly 50 family members and patients for up to four months at reduced rates. The house, built on the site of demolished fraternities, at 40th and Spruce Streets, was designed by star architect Rafael Viñoly. Contractors and workers have donated time and material. And the university donated the land, enabling the facility to open July 1. It could soon be joined by another.

Temple University Hospital said Wednesday that it would voluntarily inactivate its heart-transplant program on July 8 because of low patient volume. The Pennsylvania Department of Health had recently cited the heart program for failing to meet federal volume standards. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services require hospitals to perform 10 transplants of each type per year to help maintain quality. Temple has averaged five heart transplants a year, according to a state report.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has cited four of Temple University Hospital's transplant programs - lung, kidney, heart and liver - for failing to meet federal rules for participating in Medicare. In a report posted recently on its website, the state said Temple's lung- and kidney-transplant programs had lower-than-expected one-year graft survival rates. The graft is the transplanted organ. Patients may still be alive if they received another transplanted organ. The state also said Temple had done too few heart transplants.

Four of Temple University Hospital's transplant programs - lung, kidney, heart and liver - have been cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for failing to meet federal rules for participating in Medicare. The state said that Temple's lung and kidney transplant programs had lower-than-expected one-year graft survival rates. The graft is the transplanted organ. Patients may still be alive if they received another transplanted organ, according to a report posted recently on the state health department's website.

BOSTON - The nation's first full-face transplant recipient said that the first thing his young daughter told him when she saw him after the operation was, "Daddy, you're so handsome. " Dallas Wiens, 25, sporting a goatee and dark sunglasses, joined surgeons yesterday at Brigham and Women's Hospital here, in his first public appearance since the 15-hour procedure in March. "It feels natural," said Wiens, of Fort Worth, Texas, who received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves from an anonymous donor.

Temple University Hospital will "voluntarily inactivate" its lung-transplant program later this month because of the departure of its primary lung-transplant surgeon, a spokeswoman said. The North Philadelphia hospital said the 28 patients on its waiting list for lung transplants have been notified of the change. Rebecca Harmon, director of public relations for Temple University Health System, said Temple would stop doing lung transplants May 27 but planned to resume them when it had hired a new surgeon.