Author: tourist_yp6g7u

In an ocean of bad news stories, one good one stood out as an early Easter miracle for me recently. In case you missed the story, it involved an incredible immigrant doctor, a Black patient desperately in need of a new kidney—and a pig’s kidney.

While many media reports focused on the story, hardly one focused on the immigrant heritage of this doctor. For me, that was the main story in the dark, stormy sea of negative xenophobic reports and comments on immigrants recently, including the “poison the blood” and “vermin” comments from the 2024 Republican nominee for president.

Dr. Leonardo V. Riella, the director of kidney transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital, (MGH), led the team that transplanted the first genetically engineered pig kidney into a living human. He is also an immigrant, born and trained early on in the South American nation of Brazil.

Dr. Riella graduated with his medical degree from the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil in 2003. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2007. He joined the American Society of Transplantation (AST) board of directors in 2008 and occupied several different roles.

This was followed by his nephrology fellowship in 2009 (BWH/MGH) and transplant fellowship in 2010. Dr. Riella received his doctorate in transplant immunology in 2012 from the Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil and the Transplant Research Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Riella joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an assistant professor of medicine in 2013.

He was later recruited to become the medical director of kidney transplantation at MGH and a senior investigator at the Center for Transplantation Sciences. Dr. Riella has over 180 publications in major journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Immunology, Transplantation and American Transplant Journal. He is currently the section editor of the American Journal of Transplantation. He is currently funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, Industry and Philanthropy.

“We are proud to celebrate the key role of Brazilian Dr. Leonardo Riella,” the embassy of Brazil in the U.S. posted on X.

Thanks to Dr. Riella, Richard Slayman, 62, of Massachusetts—who received the world’s first successful transplant of a genetically edited pig kidney—is alive and was recently discharged from the hospital.

Slayman was at the end-stage of kidney disease and had depended on dialysis for years. But thanks to Dr. Riella, a transplant nephrologist who helped perform the surgery, Slayman is now home with his family and with a new lease on life.

His March 16 surgery took about four hours and was made possible after he agreed to become the first person in the world to receive a kidney from a pig, one that had been genetically edited for the human body.

The pig kidney was genetically edited using technology to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans and eliminate any risk of infection.

“We’re going to learn a lot with Mr. Slayman. He was brave to go through a procedure where there were so many unknowns,” said Dr. Riella. “What he taught us is that it is possible.”

The groundbreaking transplant offers hope to the nearly 90,000 kidney patients on dialysis. It could mark a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients.

“This moment—leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time—is one I wished would come for many years. Now, it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life,” Slayman said in a statement.

Slayman’s doctors are now working closely with the Food and Drug Administration to create a path toward clinical trials.

“And hopefully then bring it to clinical practice, bring it to all patients on the waiting list who don’t have a kidney and may have to wait too long,” said Dr. Riella, an immigrant who certainly adds to the countless immigrants across the U.S. who help make America great every day. 

Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focusing on Black immigrant issues.

The post An immigrant doctor, a Black patient, and a pig’s kidney appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) nurses have voted to ratify a new contract with SIUH-Northwell Health. They had been ready to set out on strike on Tuesday, April 2. 

Before the start of their strike, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) President Nancy Hagans had spoken out about the low pay SIUH nurses were receiving; the base pay for nurses at SIUH-Northwell nurses was averaging some $11,573 lower than what was available at other New York City hospitals.

“Nurses shouldn’t be living paycheck to paycheck while keeping Staten Island safe and healthy, and Northwell shouldn’t be making cuts that make their jobs even harder while spending big on corporate expansions and fancy ad campaigns,” Hagans had said. “Nurses on Staten Island deserve a fair contract with respectful raises and safe staffing. Northwell needs to do better by their nurses.”

SIUH nurses had received a signed letter of support for their strike from 26 other unions. “Too many SIUH nurses are leaving Staten Island to find nursing jobs in the other four boroughs,” the letter claimed. It was signed by unions like 32BJ SEIU, District Council 37, New York City District Council of Carpenters, AFSCME, Doctors Council SEIU, RWDSU, New York City Deputy Sheriffs Association, Writers Guild of America East, and Professional Staff Congress CUNY. 

“Nurses are dedicated to serving their Staten Island community but are being pushed to seek other opportunities because of SIUH’s lower pay and unsafe staffing levels. Staten Island is the only borough without an acute care public hospital. Given Northwell-SIUH’s near monopoly on healthcare on Staten Island, our community’s care will continue to suffer until pay and unsafe staffing levels are fixed.”

NYSNA, the nurses’ union, and SIUH held a long March 29 through 30 negotiating session and came to a last-minute agreement before the strike could start.

The 1,300 nurses at SIUH/Northwell voted in favor of the new contract, which is said to add nurse staffing on 18 units, boost nurse wages so that they are similar to that of other New York City private hospitals, and increase the medical program for retired nurses. SIUH-Northwell nurses now also have the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday as a paid holiday.

On X/Twitter, Staten Island’s State Assembly Member Charles D. Fall, who had signed on to a letter of support for the nurses,  called the strike aversion a “victory [that] brings crucial improvements in staffing and wages, keeping our nurses where they belong: in Staten Island, serving our community. Unity and perseverance always lead to triumph.”

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* This article was originally published here

(GIN) – Rwandans are marking the 30th anniversary of a genocide that took the lives of an estimated 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis over 100 days between April and June 1994.

President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The president then lit the Flame of Remembrance before making a speech at an arena in Kigali, capital of Rwanda.

The flame will be lit for seven days at four genocide memorial sites that were inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in September.

Other commemorative activities will be conducted across the country, including a Walk to Remember in Kigali, which will be followed by a night vigil.

Martin Mavenjina, a senior program advisor on transitional justice at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, emphasized the significance of remembering the genocide. “It’s not just as a moment of remembrance,” he said, “but an opportunity for victims and survivors to reflect, heal, and look toward the future. It reassures the world that never again will such an event happen anywhere on this continent or even anywhere (else) in the world.”

Supporters of Kagame’s rule applauded him, saying that without his firm grip on power, Rwanda could slide back to chaos that could ignite another genocide.

But human rights leaders and activists differ from that view. They say Kagame has oppressed his opponents, and killed and imprisoned his critics. Dissidents are jailed, free speech is curtailed, and political opponents often die in murky circumstances, even those living in the West.

Ethnic divisions persist under the authoritarian president, wrote New York Times reporter Declan Walsh. Soldiers under Kagame have been accused of massacre and plunder in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

This view was supported by the transitional justice advisor, who urged Kagame to loosen his grip on power and allow for more freedom.

For decades, Western leaders have looked past Kagame’s abuses, commented Walsh. “Some have expressed guilt for their failure to halt the genocide when Hutu extremists massacred people mostly from Mr. Kagame’s Tutsi ethnic group.”

Kagame took that view a step further, blaming the inaction of the international community for allowing the 1994 genocide to happen. “It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,” Kagame said in a speech after laying a wreath at a memorial site holding the remains of 250,000 genocide victims in Kigali.

The killings were ignited when a plane carrying then-President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down over Kigali. The Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president, and became targets in massacres led by Hutu extremists that lasted over 100 days. Some moderate Hutus who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority were also killed.

Some Western leaders have now expressed regret.

Bill Clinton, after leaving office, cited the Rwandan genocide as a failure of his administration. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a prerecorded video, said France and its allies could have stopped the genocide, but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France — Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 — for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter.

In reality, few voices were heard in opposition to the U.S.—few, at least, with the will and means to back up their arguments with substantial commitments of their own.

Even after the storm broke, the U.N. reaction was to retreat—to reduce, rather than increase, its forces in the country.

Some Rwandans fear that nothing has been learned—that the outside world will intervene too late, with too little, elsewhere.

Rwanda also has had troubled relations with its neighbors. Recently, tensions have flared with Congo, with the two countries’ leaders accusing one another of supporting armed groups. Relations have been tense with Burundi as well, over allegations that Kigali is backing a rebel group attacking Burundi. Relations with Uganda are yet to fully normalize after a period of tensions stemming from Rwandan allegations that Uganda was backing rebels opposed to Kagame.

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* This article was originally published here

Dr. Marcella Maxwell, best known for her work over the years as a teacher, college professor, administrator, and community leader, passed away on Thursday, March 21, at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 96. 

A native of Cleveland, N.C., Maxwell came from a long line of educators. Her grandfather donated a land grant in her hometown for the first African American elementary school.

Bill Moore photos

During her career, Maxwell worked at Medgar Evers College for 13 years, serving as dean of external affairs and dean of adult and continuing education. She remained affiliated with the college for several years, serving on the foundation board.

Funeral services for Maxwell were held April 5 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.

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* This article was originally published here

Is this more “deepfake,” or is President Biden in jeopardy of being left off the ballot in Ohio this fall? In a breaking story on Monday, it was reported that unless Ohio’s Republican-dominated legislature provides an exception or the Democratic Party moves ahead its convention, Biden’s name will not appear on the November ballot, according to the office that oversees elections in the state.

The monkey wrench in this process was the timing of Ohio’s deadline to certify presidential candidates on August 7, two weeks before the Democratic National Convention. The certification date in Ohio for candidates must occur 90 days before the general election, which is Nov. 5. “Please contact me as soon as possible with any information that can assure this office of timely compliance with Ohio law,” wrote Paul DiSantis, the chief legal counsel for Frank LaRose, the Republican Secretary of State.

A statement from the Biden campaign indicated that they were monitoring the situation and were  “confident that Joe Biden [would] be on the ballot in all 50 states.”

Before the 2020 presidential election there was a similar situation when both parties were scheduled outside the deadline forcing Ohio lawmakers to make changes for that election.

Biden’s team is busy contending with Trump’s “bloodbath” rhetoric about the southern border, and the ballot matter in Ohio, where Trump won in the previous two bids for the Oval Office. This is a nettlesome issue they can’t ignore.

A letter sent to Liz Walters, the Democratic Party Chair in Ohio, said the legislature would need to act by May 9 to create an exception to the deadline. For the Dems to change their convention date at this time would appear to be out of the question.

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* This article was originally published here