Race Is Often Used as Medical Shorthand for How Bodies Work. Some Doctors Want to Change That. |
Race Is Often Used as Medical Shorthand for How Bodies Work. Some Doctors Want to Change That.
KHN (Kaiser Health News)
2022-06-13
Rae Ellen Bichell, Colorado Correspondent
Cara Anthony, Midwest Correspondent
Several months ago, a lab technologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital mixed the blood components of two people: Alphonso Harried, who needed a kidney, and Pat Holterman-Hommes, who hoped to give him one.
The goal was to see whether Harried’s body would instantly see Holterman-Hommes’ organ as a major threat and attack it before surgeons could finish a transplant. To do that, the technologist mixed in fluorescent tags that would glow if Harried’s immune defense forces would latch onto the donor’s cells in preparation for an attack. If, after a few hours, the machine found lots of glowing, it meant the kidney transplant would be doomed. It stayed dark: They were a match.
“I was floored,” said Harried…
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Tags: Alphonso Harried, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Barry Freedman, Cara Anthony, Kaiser Family Foundation, Kaiser Health News, Keith Norris, KFF, KHN, Lisa McElroy, Marva Moxey-Mims, Missouri, Nwamaka Eneanya, Pat Holterman-Hommes, Rae Ellen Bichell, St. Louis, Tanjala Purnell, Tarek Alhamad, Vanessa Grubbs