HEALTH REPORT - Kidney Transplants

HEALTH REPORT - Kidney¹ Transplants³
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Wednesday, April 21, 2004

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Each year, thousands of people receive organ transplants. The most common of these operations is a kidney transplant². Experts say almost thirty-thousand people received new kidneys⁴ last year. Fourteen-thousand of them were in the United States.

One person who received a new kidney earlier this year was Ray Freeman. Many of you know him. Ray worked at VOA for years. He retired⁵ at the end of last month. And we are happy to report that he is doing well as he recovers from his operation.

Ray had suffered from kidney problems for many years. He had begun treatment with a dialysis machine. But dialysis is not a cure.

One reason kidney transplants are performed so often is that a kidney can come from a living donor⁶. People have two kidneys to remove waste from the body. But they need only one.

Ray needed a healthy kidney. The person who gives an organ or tissue is known as the donor. The person who receives it is the recipient⁷. Ray found a donor. His wife, Renie, offered to give him one of her kidneys.

A transplant succeeds only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. They attempt this with drugs that suppress⁸ the body's defense⁹ system. Before any of this, however, the doctors must make sure the tissue is similar to that of the transplant patient.

Both the donor and recipient must have the same blood type. They also must have some of the same proteins called H.L.A. antigens. These are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H.L.A. antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, tested both Renie and Ray Freeman. They found enough of a match to do the operation.

Renie was in the hospital for three days. Ray was home after about a week. Three months later, he takes anti-rejection medicine each day. He has blood tests each week to make sure everything is all right. Renie is fine. And Ray says he feels better than he has in years.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about organ transplants, listen next Tuesday at this hour for Science in the News.

1 kidney   

n.肾，腰子，类型

参考例句：

• Several of the patients had received kidney transplant.病人中有几位已接受了肾移植手术。
• The operation to transplant a kidney is now fairly routine.肾脏移植手术如今已相当常见。

2 transplant   

n.移植的器官或植物；v.使迁移，使移居

参考例句：

• Some plants do not transplant well.有些植物不宜移植。
• Several of the patients had received kidney transplant.病人中有几位已接受了肾移植手术。

3 transplants   

n.（器官、皮肤、头发等的）移植( transplant的名词复数 )；移植的器官，移植物

参考例句：

• The heart transplants have been read about and discussed everywhere. 人们已读到关于心脏移植的报道，到处都在议论此事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A number of terms are used in various classifications of transplants. 移植物的各种分类中应用了一系列的名词。 来自辞典例句

4 kidneys   

肾形矿脉； 肾，肾脏( kidney的名词复数 )； （可食用的动物的）腰子

参考例句：

• The function of the kidneys is to excrete wastes from the body. 肾的功能是排泄人体里的废物。
• She got a very dangerous disease of kidneys. 她得了一种很危险的肾病。

5 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

6 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

7 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

8 suppress   

vt.压制，镇压，查禁，抑制，阻止

参考例句：

• He continued to suppress the people and serve the imperialists.他继续镇压人民，为帝国主义效劳。
• She was struggling to suppress her sobs.她拼命不让自己哭出来。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。