UCSF Children's Hospital to Honor

By Phyllis Brown

* WHAT:
UCSF Children’s Hospital will hold a special reunion picnic for children—from infants to teens—who are transplant patients.  Attending will be those who have received kidney or liver transplants, those awaiting transplants, their families and their organ donors. About 400 patients and their families have been invited from throughout California and beyond. Some 250 attendees are anticipated to attend the “Pirates of the Caribbean”-themed event, some coming from as far away as Washington and Hawaii.

* WHEN:
Saturday, August 4, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

* WHERE:
McNear’s Beach Park, Cantera Road, San Rafael, CA.
(Take Highway 101 to Central San Rafael exit. Then east to Point San Pedro Road.)

* WHO:
Pediatric liver and kidney transplant patients, physicians, nurses, patients, donors and their families  

* INTERVIEWS:
Interviews can be arranged with those attending the event. 

* CONTACT:
Interested media should contact the UCSF News Office at (415) 476-2557.

* DETAIL:
Pediatric liver and kidney transplant services at UCSF Children’s Hospital are among the oldest and most highly respected in the United States. Children have received transplanted kidneys at UCSF since 1964 and transplanted livers since 1989.

Children who receive new livers at UCSF have a survival rate of more than 95 percent after one year and 90 percent after five years. The survival rate for kidney transplant patients is 95 percent, well above the national average.

UCSF’s pediatric transplant programs also provide social and emotional support for children and their families as well as helping organ recipients return to leading normal, healthy, active lives.