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It's extremely rare when someone asking for nothing in return steps forward at a hospital and offers to donate a kidney to a complete stranger. What's rarer still is what has happened at Loyola University Medical Center -- four people have offered to donate kidneys to four complete strangers and none have asked for a thing in return. Their donations have helped Loyola launch its Pay-It-Forward Kidney Transplant Program, the first of its kind in the Midwest, and the largest number of altruistic donors to ever begin such a program in the United States. "This represents a spectacular improvement in our nation’s approach to living-donor kidney donation," said Loyola kidney transplant surgeon Dr. John Milner.
National guidelines say patients undergoing heart attacks should receive balloon angioplasties as soon as possible or within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital -- known as the "door-to-balloon time" time. In the first year since launching its Heart Attack Rapid Response Team, Loyola has far exceeded that standard, with a median door-to-balloon time of just 41 minutes. All patients have received balloon angioplasties within 90 minutes, and 88 percent within 60 minutes. The fastest procedure was done in just 22 minutes. Most hospitals do not have teams on site during nights and weekends. Loyola is the only hospital in Illinois to have an interventional cardiologist is on site 24 hours a day.
