At Emory School of Medicine, innovation and compassion go hand in hand. At the Emory Transplant Center, the only center of its kind in Georgia, teams of surgeons and nurses provide second chances to patients with organ failure. At the same time, Emory researchers are moving closer to the holy grail of organ transplantation—tricking the body into accepting an organ transplant.
As a child in the Philippines, Rolando Divinaflor nearly died from an untreated ear infection that hung on for 11 years. Having faced death, he dedicated his life to helping others. He moved to Jamaica and joined the Missionaries of the Poor. But another illness was quietly taking its toll, and soon his kidneys failed.
A path of kindness, beginning with strangers thousands of miles away, led the young man to the Emory Transplant Center in 2007. Today the ordained priest tends to Jamaica’s most vulnerable populations.
Emory and other Atlanta institutions donated Divinaflor’s medical care, and 24 mission brothers volunteered a kidney; one brother, Joseph Baal, was a good match. Emory surgeon Christian Larsen performed the transplant at Emory Hospital. An anonymous donor covers the costly medications—some 16 a day—that Divinaflor must take for the rest of his life so his body won’t reject the transplanted kidney.
Someday those medications may no longer be necessary. Larsen and his colleagues have achieved major breakthroughs that will help transplant recipients live normal lives without the severe side effects of current drugs.
Your generous gift to the School of Medicine will help others like Rolando Divinaflor realize their potential.
