KAAL
by Laura Lee

Thousands of people in Minnesota are in need of life-saving organ transplants, including a member of our ABC 6 News team. At any local sporting event, more often than not, you'll see ABC 6 Chief Photographer Chad Corey behind the camera, "I like to be behind the camera," he chuckles.   However, recently he's found himself in front of the camera, hooked up to a dialysis machine… "Generally anyone can donate," says Dr. Patrick Dean with Mayo Clinic. Dean is a kidney transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic and a 15 year veteran in the department.  He says 95,000 people are already on the kidney waiting list in the United States.  Last year more than 19,000 kidneys were transplanted, about 250 of those at Mayo Clinic. "So there is clearly a big gap between how many people are waiting and how many are actually transplanted and around 7,000 people on the waiting list will die every year before they're able to receive a transplant," said Dean.

Reach: KAAL-TV is the ABC affiliate for the Rochester, MN - Mason City, IA, market. The station is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting Inc.

Context:  Patrick Dean, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic general surgeon with the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center.  Mayo Clinic is the largest integrated transplant provider in the United States. Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota include more than 150 surgeons and physicians and hundreds of allied health staff who are trained in caring for transplant patients. Mayo Clinic surgeons perform more than 600 kidney transplants a year, including for people with very challenging kidney conditions who need special solutions and surgeries. And Mayo Clinic kidney transplant teams in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota are leaders in living-donor kidney transplants. People who receive a kidney from a living donor usually have fewer complications than those who receive a kidney from a deceased donor.

Contact:  Heather Carlson

Tags: Chad Corey, Dr. Patrick Dean, KAAL, kidney transplant, Uncategorized