Michelle Jenkins, a 36-year-old patient from Parma, recently became Ohio's first adult combined intestine/kidney transplant recipient.
Dr. Cristiano Quintini
Cleveland Clinic transplant surgeons Cristiano Quintini, M.D., Koji Hashimoto, MD, Venkatesh Krishnamurthi, MD and Federico Aucejo, MD, performed the landmark procedure during a single operation that lasted more than 10 hours.
Jenkins was on a liquids-only diet for years before her transplant. She is recovering well, eating normally for the first time in years and was discharged just a few days after the operation.
After suffering renal failure and receiving a kidney transplant donated by her father in 2005, Jenkins developed inflammation and other issues related to having dialysis. This led to a chronic bowel obstruction, recurrent nausea and vomiting.
Jenkins was started on total parenteral nutrition (TPN) therapy, an all-liquid diet, but experienced recurrent dehydration, leading to failure of her transplanted kidney. So Dr. Quintini and his team put Jenkins on the transplant list, procured the organs and then performed the transplant.
