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Lou Reed Gets Liver Transplant
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posted on AARP: "How do you feel about an aging rock icon, who spent his youth wrecking his liver with booze and drugs, being able to get a new liver at age 71? Is it right, considering that there are far more people on the organ-transplant list than there are donors? ......whether age or past indiscretions should affect organ-transplant decisions" full text below
Buzz was abound when Lou Reed had to cancel a string of West Coast tour dates back in April, especially since the Velvet Underground songwriter missed out on his two dates at Coachella. But over the weekend it was announced that the "unavoidable complications" that made Reed miss his shows was actually a life-saving liver transplant from which he's currently recovering.......Reed's wife, artist Laurie Anderson, broke the transplant news late last week, saying the former Velvet Underground singer had been "dying" before undergoing the procedure. It's not clear exactly why Reed needed a transplant, though his early years of hard living probably didn't help
Lou Reed recovering after liver transplant
http://m.guardiannews.com
Musician, 71, underwent life-saving surgery last month in Cleveland, says wife Laurie Anderson
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson pictured at a dinner in New York in 2011. Photograph: Billy Farrell Agency / Rex Featu
Ben Quinn
Lou Reed, the US songwriter, poet and vocalist with the Velvet Underground, had a liver transplant last month, according to his wife, the musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson.
"It's as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don't get it for fun," said Anderson, who added that her husband was now on the road to recovery following the life-saving surgery.
Reed, the writer of songs such as Walk on the Wild Side and Heroin, had unexpectedly cancelled five concert appearances in April, including two performances at the Coachella festival, in California. One of the venues told disappointed fans there had been "unavoidable complications".
Reed, 71, cancelled a number of concerts in April and had surgery in Cleveland rather than in his native New York due to what Anderson described as the "dysfunctional" hospitals in his home town. She said in an interview with the Times: "I don't think he'll ever totally recover from this, but he'll certainly be back to doing [things] in a few months. He's already working and doing t'ai chi. I'm very happy. It's a new life for him."
The couple, above, have been together for more than 20 years but got married in 2008 following a spur-of-the-moment decision while talking on the phone.
Anderson, whose 1981 single, O Superman, reached number two in the British charts, spoke of her awe for the operation which saved Reed's life.
"You send out two planes - one for the donor, one for the recipient - at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support. It's a technological feat.
"I was completely awestruck. I find certain things about technology truly, deeply inspiring."
Reed surprised fans in New York in March when he appeared at a playback of his seminal album Transformer.
Best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, Reed has also had a successful solo career spanning a number of decades, producing hits such as Walk on the Wild Side in 1972. Recent collaborations have included a 2011 album with the rock group Metallica.
Anderson is due to perform at the Barbican in London this month with the string ensemble, Kronos Quartet.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Lou Reed saved by liver transplant after years of drugs and alcohol take their toll
Lou Reed, the influential American rock musician, was forced to have a lifesaving transplant after suffering a chronic liver failure.
Reed's work, both with Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, has influenced generations of musicians, including the groundbreaking British and American punk bands of the 70s. Photo: REX FEATURES
By Patrick Sawer
10:46AM BST 01 Jun 2013
The 71-year-old founder member of The Velvet Underground - whose records chronicled the drug culture and seedy underbelly of New York - is now recovering from the surgery he underwent at a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, his wife Laurie Anderson has revealed.
Reed, the writer of songs such as Walk on the Wild Side and Heroin, had unexpectedly cancelled five concert appearances in April, including two performances at the Coachella festival, in California. One of the venues told disappointed fans there had been "unavoidable complications".
Miss Anderson, a songwriter and performance artist, said: "It's as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don't get it for fun."
She described the operation as "a big surgery which went very well", adding: "You send out two planes - one for the donor, one for the recipient - at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support.
"It's a technological feat. I was completely awestruck. I find certain things about technology truly, deeply inspiring."
Reed's work has long evoked his both fascination and struggle with drugs and alcohol. Heroin, written in 1964, and released with the Velvet Underground three years later, featured the line: "Heroin, be the death of me/Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life."
He once said of his drug-taking: "I take drugs just because, in the 20th century, in a technological age living in the city, there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman, just to bring yourself up or down.
"But to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don't get you high even, they just get you normal."
Although he successfully overcame his addictions a number of years ago the physical strain on his body appears to have finally taken its toll. He has previously suffered from hepatitis.
Miss Anderson, a performance artist known for her 1981 hit single O Superman, said that the couple had chosen transplant surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland, rather than those in the couple's home city of New York because she claimed that its hospitals were dysfunctional.
In an interview for the Times newspaper, she said: "Fortunately we can outsource like corporations. It's medical tourism. The Cleveland clinic is massive.
"They have the best results for heart, liver and kidney transplants. Whenever I get discouraged about how stupid technology is and how greedy and stupid Americans are, I go to the Cleveland clinic because the people there are genuinely very kind and very smart."
Miss Anderson, who married Reed five years ago after they had been together for over 15 years, said the impact of his sudden deterioration and the subsequent operation had left her drained.
She said: "When you've been with someone for a long time, it's almost like it's happening to you because of the empathy between partners." She added, however:
"This is no longer an operation that is life threatening. They put it [the new liver] in immediately and it started to work immediately. Every week it gets better. I can imagine a world where you can get everything transplanted."
Reed's work, both with Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, has influenced generations of musicians, including the groundbreaking British and American punk bands of the 70s.
Miss Anderson, 65, said that he could be back at work in a few months and was already up and about doing t'ai chi, although she warned that "he'll never totally recover from this."
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Lou Reed's New Liver Sparks Old Debate About Transplants
http://blog.aarp.org Posted on 06/3/2013 by Candy Sagon
How do you feel about an aging rock icon, who spent his youth wrecking his liver with booze and drugs, being able to get a new liver at age 71? Is it right, considering that there are far more people on the organ-transplant list than there are donors?
How about if this same rocker has mended his ways and been a pillar of health since he was in his 40s? Does that change things?
The news that singer-songwriter-guitarist Lou Reed underwent a liver transplant about a month ago at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic brings up the touchy subject of whether age or past indiscretions should affect organ-transplant decisions.
The topic is being raised more often these days now that the number of older Americans receiving organ transplants is going up. In the past decade the number of organ-transplant patients who are 65 or older has jumped from 3 percent to more than 25 percent, the New York Times reported.
According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, the number of kidney transplants between 1998 and 2011 tripled among those over 65. Between 2001 and 2011 the percentage of liver-transplant recipients nearly doubled, from 7.4 to 13 percent.
Medicare pays for the surgery, but patients are responsible for co-pays and out-of-pocket costs, including drugs and travel, according to the Times.
Reed's wife, musician Laurie Anderson, said her husband "was dying" of liver failure before undergoing the operation several weeks ago, the Associated Press reported. She said Reed wasn't yet back to full strength, but "he's already working and doing tai chi," the ancient, graceful Chinese exercise regimen he has practiced for 30 years.
On his website, Reed posted a message saying he's"bigger and stronger" than ever, calling himself "a triumph of modern medicine" and crediting his health to his doing tai chi.
Reed, who was born and raised in New York, cofounded the influential 1960s rock group the Velvet Underground. The group's song "Heroin," which Reed wrote about addiction, is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of top songs that shaped rock and roll.
Reed left the group in 1970 to start a solo career. His best-known solo works include "Walk on the Wild Side."
Anderson said Reed and she chose the Cleveland Clinic, one of the country's leading transplant centers, because hospitals in Reed's home state of New York were "dysfunctional." The Cleveland Clinic, unlike some other facilities, also has no age limit on transplant patients, according to the New York Times.
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January 8, 2013 NY times
Who Should Receive Organ Transplants?
By PAULA SPAN
Cleveland Clinic Center for Medical Art and Photography
Joe Gammalo, right, who received a lung transplant four years ago, recently played in a band with his son, Tony Gammalo, in what Joe described as "a highlight of both our lives."
Joe Gammalo had been contending with pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs, for more than a decade when he came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2008 seeking a lung transplant.
"It had gotten to the point where I was on oxygen all the time and in a wheelchair," he told me in an interview. "I didn't expect to live."
Lung transplants are a dicey proposition, involving a huge surgical procedure, arduous follow-up, the lifelong use of potent immunosuppressive drugs and high rates of serious side effects. "It's not like taking out an appendix," said Dr. Marie Budev, the medical director of the clinic's lung transplant program.
Only 50 to 57 percent of all recipients live for five years, she noted, and they will still die of their disease. But there's no other treatment for pulmonary fibrosis.
Some medical centers would have turned Mr. Gammalo away. Because survival rates are even lower for older patients, guidelines from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation caution against lung transplants for those over 65, though they set no age limit.
But "we are known as an aggressive, high-risk center," said Dr. Budev. So Mr. Gammalo was 66 when he received a lung; his newly found buddy, Clyde Conn, who received the other lung from the same donor, was 69.
You can't mistake the trend: A graying population and revised policies determining who gets priority for donated organs, have led to a rising proportion of older adults receiving transplants.
My colleague Judith Graham has reported on the increase in heart transplants, but the pattern extends to other organs, too.
The number of kidney transplants performed annually on adults over 65 tripled between 1998 and last year, according to data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. In 2001, 7.4 percent of liver transplant recipients were over 65; last year, that rose to 13 percent.
The rise in elderly lung transplant candidates is particularly dramatic because, since 2005, a "lung allocation score" puts those at the highest mortality risk, rather than those who've waited longest, at the top of the list.
In 2001, about 3 percent of those on the wait list and of those transplanted were over 65; last year, older patients represented almost 18 percent of wait-listed candidates and more than a quarter of transplant recipients.
(Medicare pays for the surgery, though patients face co-pays and considerable out-of-pocket costs, including for drugs and travel.)
The debate has grown, too: When the number of adults awaiting transplants keeps growing, but organ donations stay flat, is it desirable or even ethical that an increasing proportion of recipients are elderly?
Dr. Budev, who estimated that a third of her program's patients are over 65, votes yes. As long as a program selects candidates carefully, "how can you deny them a therapy?" she asked. So the Cleveland Clinic has no age limit. "We feel that everyone should have a chance."
At the University of Michigan, by contrast, the age limit remains 65, though Dr. Kevin Chan, the transplant program's medical director, acknowledged that some fit older patients get transplanted.
"You can talk about this all day - it's a tough one," Dr. Chan said. Younger recipients have greater physiologic reserve to aid in the arduous recovery; older ones face higher risk of subsequent kidney failure, stroke, diabetes and other diseases, and, of course, their lifespans are shorter to begin with.
Donated lungs, fragile and prone to injury, are a particularly scarce commodity. Last year, surgeons performed 16,055 kidney transplants, 5,805 liver transplants and 1,949 heart transplants. Only1,830 patients received lung transplants.
"What if there's a 35-year-old on a ventilator who needs the lung just as much?" Dr. Chan said. "Why should a 72-year-old possibly take away a lung from a 35-year-old?" Yet, he acknowledged, "it's easy to look at the statistics and say, 'Give the lungs to younger patients.' At the bedside, when you meet this patient and family, it's a lot different."
These questions about who deserves scarce resources - those most likely to die without them? or those most likely to live longer with them? - will persist as the population ages. They're also likely to arise when the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation begins working towards revised guidelines this spring. (I'd also like to hear your take, below.)
Lots of 65- and 75-year-olds are very healthy. Yet transplants themselves can cause harm and there's no backup, like dialysis. Without the transplant, they die. But when the transplant goes wrong, they also die.
More than four years post-transplant, the Cleveland Clinic's "lung brothers" are success stories. Mr. Conn, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, can't walk very far or lift more than 10 pounds, but he works part time as a real-estate appraiser and enjoys cruises with his wife.
Mr. Gammalo, a onetime musician, has developed diabetes, like nearly half of all lung recipients. But he went onstage a few weeks back to sing "Don't Be Cruel" with his son's rock band, "a highlight of both our lives," he said.
Yet when I asked Mr. Conn, now 73, how he felt about having priority over a younger but healthier person, he paused. "It's a good question," he said, to which he had no answer.
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