MUSC Health opens transplant clinic in Greenville

(John Greene with sister Megan Greene Roberts, left, and mom Allison Greene. Photograph supplied.)

By Liv Osby

After Natalie Davis had a life-saving coronary heart transplant, her household needed to make a few dozen journeys from Greenville County to Charleston to see medical doctors the primary 12 months. 

The variety of yearly journeys has declined some since that Could day in 2014, however the appointments proceed to be frequent, inserting a hardship on her and her household, her mom, Jane Davis, stated.

The drive was lengthy and uncomfortable for Natalie, now 11, her mother stated. And it was robust to maintain her little sister, Kayla, now 8, occupied, she instructed Greenville Enterprise Journal. 

Plus, the price of lodging, gasoline and meals added up. 

“Accommodations in Charleston will not be low-cost,” Davis stated. “It was often $100 an evening for a room.”

However the Medical College of South Carolina has opened a satellite tv for pc clinic in Greenville, which can permit Upstate transplant sufferers to remain within the space for a lot of appointments.

“It sounds nice to me,” stated the Greer lady. “We will simply go and go dwelling. It can simply make life a lot simpler.”

The middle – MUSC Well being Grove Street – will see sufferers who’ve had coronary heart, lung, liver and kidney transplants, stated Zachary Sutton, a doctor assistant who works on the heart. 

Within the final 10 years, extra MUSC transplant sufferers have been from the Upstate than wherever else within the state, he stated.

“Our sufferers are already right here,” he stated. “We now have a extra everlasting presence right here to care for them.”

Sutton stated some physicians will probably be onsite, however sufferers also can use a telehealth suite to have digital appointments with medical doctors in Charleston.

Providers on the new location embody pre-transplant evaluations whereas sufferers are on the ready record for an organ, and post-transplant checks to see how they’re doing, he stated. 

MUSC has partnerships with space suppliers in order that testing may be executed right here as effectively, he stated.

“Traditionally,” he stated, “we introduced sufferers all the way down to Charleston for assessments they usually had been there for a protracted time frame.” 

MUSC’s transfer to Greenville had been deliberate for about 5 years, he stated. Related expansions have already been executed in Murrells Inlet, Columbia and Lexington, he stated, with one other coming to Lancaster County quickly. 

Having care near dwelling will probably be an enormous aid for John Greene, a Greenville kidney transplant affected person who’s awaiting a second transplant since his first kidney, donated by his mom, Allison Greene, failed after seven years.

Now 36, Greene had the transplant in 2012 after being identified with a uncommon however critical sickness that damages organs just like the kidneys.

After the surgical procedure, there have been numerous medical visits to make sure all the things was going in line with plan. And the frequent journeys to Duke College Medical Middle in North Carolina added to the stress, the associated fee and the issue of transplant surgical procedure, Allison Greene stated. 

“It was simply grueling,” she remembers. “On the most effective day, the drive to Duke can be 4 hours.” 

Alongside together with his mom, different members of the family needed to keep in Durham to be close to John as effectively, disrupting their work schedules and paying for lodging out-of-pocket, generally for weeks, she stated.

However after the following transplant, which his sister hopes to be accepted to donate quickly, he will probably be near dwelling, household, pals and his beloved canine.

“As a substitute of spending a month in Charleston post-transplant, which I needed to do for my first transplant at Duke, I’ll be capable to return to Greenville one week after surgical procedure and attend appointments on the town to verify the kidney isn’t rejecting,” John Greene stated. 

 “Having the workplace right here will probably be a lifesaver on the subject of time, cash and anxiousness.”