John Nicholas, from Indianapolis, underwent the awake transplant last month at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. His childhood friend, Patrick Wise, whom he has known since elementary school was the live donor.
“They showed me the kidney before they put it in. I don’t think anybody’s ever had that experience before.” Satish Nadig, chief of transplant surgery at Northwestern Medicine, who performed the operation said Nicholas did not require any opioid narcotic pain medication and was able to go home within 24 hours of the procedure with a functioning kidney.Being in constant communication with the transplant team, Nicholas was a “participant in the operation rather than just a spectator in his own health care,” Nadig told Global News in an interview.