Patient remains awake during surgery, watches his own kidney transplant, says it was ‘pretty cool’

Going under the knife is a scary experience for many, and people tend to avoid it at any cost. However, a man from Chicago underwent an organ transplant while he was fully awake. Twenty-eight-year-old John Nicholas witnessed doctors swap his kidney with one from his childhood friend.?The surgery was performed at Northwestern Medicine on May 24, and it was the first time a transplant recipient was kept awake during the surgical procedure.?

How the surgery was performed

Instead of using the normal general anesthesia, Northwestern Medicine doctors used a spinal anesthesia shot, keeping him awake during the transplant.

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Nicholas felt no pain during the procedure and was home less than 24 hours after surgery, instead of the usual 2-3 days of hospitalization.?

Pretty cool experience

"It was a pretty cool experience to know what was happening in real-time and be aware of the magnitude of what they were doing," Nicholas said, adding he felt "no sensation whatsoever." "I had been given some sedation for my own comfort, but I was still aware of what they were doing. Especially when they called out my name and told me about certain milestones they had reached."

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Transplant becomes an outpatient procedure

According to transplant surgeon Satish Nadig, the transplant surgery was completed in two hours, and the patient was discharged the same day, making this an outpatient procedure.?

"For John’s case, we placed a spinal anesthesia shot in the operating room with a little bit of sedation for comfort. It was incredibly simple and uneventful, but allowed John to be awake for the procedure, improving the patient experience. Not only can awake kidney transplantation help patients who have risks or phobias to general anesthesia, but it can help shorten their hospital stay so they can recover more comfortably at home,” Dr. Vicente Garcia Tomas, MD, anesthesiologist and chief of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said.

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Why?Nicholas had to get a transplant?

Nicholas was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease when he was 16 and began having kidney issues. While he didn’t require dialysis and managed on medication, his kidney function began to decline more in 2022.

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Initially, his mother had agreed to donate her organ, but that was scrapped after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After this, one of his close friends came forward to be the organ donor.

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