Usually, when I read or watch the news, I get queasy and have to stop reading/watching. Good news seems hard to come by and bad news comes in droves. However, lately, I have been indifferent to the news. Reading about how Kansas has no money, people are being brutally killed, and there are significant downsizings in a company doesn't make me queasy anymore; it just passes right over me. Bad news constantly makes up our days and after a while, you just get tired of feeling awful about it. I wouldn't consider myself to be cynical, but lately, I have been, because of the dismal news. All of those feelings changed when I heard about the first ever HIV-positive organ transplant in the United States.
According to NPR, a woman from Connecticut died earlier this month, and her family wanted to donate her organs. However, she was HIV positive. Up until 2013, it was illegal for HIV-positive people to donate their organs. Then, Obama passed a bill that repealed the 1980s law that made organ donation from HIV-positive patients illegal. All of those components had to work together to make the transplant happen.
According to CNN, Johns Hopkins announced that they had officially performed the first ever U.S. liver transplant from a HIV-positive donor and the first ever U.S. kidney transplant from the same donor. The recipients of the organ donations were also HIV-positive and are both recuperating well after the surgery. A 2011 survey estimated that with HIV-positive people being added to the donor pool, there would be 500 to 600 more potential organ donors in the system. The CNN article also goes on to say that out of the 122,000 people on the donor waiting list, only 1 in 4 people get a donated organ. More people can receive organs they need to survive with HIV-positive patients being allowed to donate their organs.
Medical history was made in the U.S. when the first ever HIV-positive transplant was performed; it paves the way for so many medical advancements. This was just the news I needed to hear to restore my faith in the world a little bit. I'm an optimist who let the negative news in the world sway my faith in humanity. Just 30 years ago, HIV-positive patients were not allowed to donate organs; they also were not living long, uncompromised lives. Now, doctors at Johns Hopkins have taken something that is usually bad news and turned it into good news. Every cloud does have a silver lining (and I've never been so happy to use a cliché in my life).
