Philadelphia Inquirer - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - 10

www.philly.com THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Monday, October 1, 2007 Joe Kadi checks daghter Nadia for fever. She was getting a new liver at CHOP while his wife was having a baby in Doylestown. He wished he could be in both hospitals at the same time. Kim Olthoff, liver transplant surgeon at CHOP, waits at Philadelphia International Airport with a box holding a liver that she will implant in a patient. She had just returned on a charter flight from harvest the liver from a donor. Her voice mixed with those of the other surgeons as they called for instruments and coordinated their four recoveries. Timing was critical. Even as a resident at the University of California, Los Angeles, Olthoff had been drawn to the organized chaos of transplants. But she is a rarity. Only 49 women — fewer than 5 percent — are among the 1,037 surgeons who are members of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. Olthoff, who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, came to Philadelphia in 1995, following her mentor, Abraham Shaked, director of the Penn Transplant Institute. The position appealed to her because it combined pediatric transplants at CHOP and adults next door at HUP. She arrived on a summer day, eight months pregnant with her second child. She hadn’t even reached baggage claim when her husband told her that Shaked needed her. Two transplants that day. And she hadn’t even started her job. Every transplant entails at least two major operations: one on the organ recipient and the other on the donor, the person who now lay in front of her. Olthoff felt a deep responsibility to both. In her hands she held the donor’s legacy and Nadia’s potential for a long, full life. Vital signs flashed on the monitor, and the donor’s arteries pulsed with blood. The liver was warm to the surgeon’s touch. Her operation would take longer than the rest. The other surgeons paused while Olthoff pressed ahead. Guided by her intimate knowledge of the organ’s internal anatomy, the surgeon slowly divided the liver to create two viable grafts. She isolated the vessels running in and out of the right and left lobes, careful to preserve key arteries and The Day of Nadia’s Transplant A 24-hour snapshot of Children’s Hospital on April 4, 2007. Emergency room Approximately 190 patients were seen in the emergency department, including: Hospital admissions Approximately 71 patients were admitted to the Hospital. 36 for injury and poisoning 35 for respiratory system diseases 33 for digestive system diseases 26 for nervous system diseases 16 for infectious disease 7 21 8 8 6 for injury and poisoning for respiratory system diseases for digestive system diseases for nervous system diseases for infectious disease Incoming transports 5 CHOP team ambulances 5 non-CHOP ambulances 1 private vehicle Outgoing transports 1 CHOP team ambulance Cancer patients Approximately 40 patients were admitted to the oncology unit, including: 10 for procedures and aftercare 7 with cancer in unspecified sites 5 with blood and lymphatic cancers 3 with blood diseases 3 with medical device complications

Philadelphia Inquirer - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

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