July 1, 2011
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA
Vol. 29, No. 44
Transplant ‘heroes’ honored at banquet
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Patient Laura Phillipps shares a special moment with Dr. Prabhakar Baliga at the banquet.
Patient thanks efforts of transplant team
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from a speech by patient Laura Phillipps made at the June 9 banquet.
F
irst, I want to tell you how honored and excited I am to have been invited to speak tonight. Dr. Baliga and the rest of the transplant team are my heroes, my earthly angels. They are medical geniuses and together form an amazing transplant team that has given me a new lease on life—twice. Thirteen years ago, I was a junior in high school, studying hard and playing harder. In December of 1998, my life changed forever. I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure and told I would need a kidney transplant. To a 16-year-old who was playing basketball just days before, this news should have been extremely overwhelming. However, I can remember thinking to myself, “Oh, a transplant, I can totally handle one of those!” Then, when I learned the details of dialysis and realized I would be married to a See paTIenT on page 8
rabhakar Baliga, M.D., became the first person to be named to the Fitts-Raja Endowed Chair in Transplant Surgery June 9 during a banquet at Marion’s in the French Quarter. The Fitts-Raja Endowed Chair in Transplant Surgery was created in 2007 to honor both Drs. P.R. Rajagopalan and Charles Thomas Fitts, who had worked together for nearly 30 years developing what is the state’s only transplant program. The Transplant
Program completed its 1,000th liver transplant in March and has performed more than 4,000 kidney transplants since 1968,
when Fitts performed the first one at MUSC. More than 100 people attended the banquet where patient Laura Phillipps praised the work of Baliga and other “heroes” who have made the lives of those in dire need of kidney transplants, such as herself, so much better. (See her story left.) President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., said the event represented an appropriate tribute to two surgeons who
InsIde Chandler’s law
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In hopes of reducing ATV injuries, a new law goes into effect July 1.
FighT FOr air Climb
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See TransplanT on page 8
A special fundraising effort for the American Lung Association challenges stair climbers. 2 Campus News 5
Meet Dean
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Classifieds
T h e C aTa ly s T Online
MUSC President Dr. Ray Greenberg (left) at the banquet with Drs. P.R. Rajagopalan, Prabhakar Baliga and David Cole, chair of the Department of Surgery.
http://www. musc.edu/ catalyst