Note: Today I learned that Mr. Slayman died earlier this month. This post was adapted from my comment just yesterday to "Ill. man, 50, underwent 6 organ transplants," which is linked far below.

In March, a Massachusetts man became the first patient to survive transplantation of a pig kidney. Previously, "Rick" Slayman, 62, had a human kidney transplant, reported usatoday.com, but his blood clotting before that transplant didn't stop with that transplant.

He ended up back on dialysis.

When I trained for and worked as a CNA, some of the nursing home residents I dressed and groomed were preparing for dialysis or had returned from it. Upon treatment, they'd appear exhausted, in pain, and frail.

There's blood throughout the human body, and our kidneys, among other functions, clean the waste from our blood. I think its vital, lifelong function is the reason why we tend to have two. If one is removed, injured, diseased or what not, we still have a chance at survival. However, I had an awful impression of the necessary dialysis treatment that helps some of us perform this function.

Also see "Ill. man, 50, underwent 6 organ transplants" below.

Again, Slayman is only the first successful recipient of any animal-to-human kidney, so I'm curious to see more examples of this kind of xenotransplantation. Given its novel success and experimental nature, how well the kidney might function captures my interest before the duration that kidney might function.

So far, Slayman's off to a good start. Dr. Tatsuo Kawai was the surgeon in Slayman's transplantation team at Massachusetts General Hospital. The porcine kidney turned pink immediately, he told reporters. A good sign. 

"It was truly the most beautiful urine I have ever seen," Kawai said.

Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find her writings and commentaries, including the one on Shafiq's and Weintraub's "'New beginning': First man to successfully receive pig kidney transplant discharged," at landturn.com/blog.

Related: Ill. man, 50, underwent 6 organ transplants (2022)
Related: Living longer with health problems (2022)
Related: "The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black" (2020)
Related: Why Americans appear to have an obesity advantage (2023)
Related: The marijuana advocacy one Pa. legalization lawmaker overlooked (2021)
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​Related: "The Price We Pay" (Makary) (2021)

A distress call from students at one major university and an endorsement by an advisor to world bodies of government at another speaks to Jill Stein's viability as a U.S. presidential candidate.

However, she faces an uphill climb in a populous state with one of the most stringent requirement to ballot access for third-party and independent candidates. New York requires 45,000 valid signatures in just one month. In 2020, I learned from the Howie Hawkins campaign about the electoral tariff imposed on such candidates in his home state.

​Perhaps it builds fortitude that most PA election cycles, for example, require that individual strangers request dozens of other strangers to commit their name & address on a petition to get a third-party or independent candidate on the ballot.

The year after Biden's election, Hawkins, a retired Teamster, traveled to Harrisburg from Syracuse to help me petition outdoors for several hours in the middle of summer. In regard to Stein, her May 3 rally with guest Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University saw $45,000 for a NY effort that requires more than 7X the people power.

Cornel West -- who I've supported since his announcement last year -- faces the same electoral tariff in addition to no singular party backing or previous electoral profile. To those of you in New York or PA who commit your valid signatures: Thank you.

A comment on the event "Jill Stein Virtual Rally with Jeffrey Sachs" (J. Stein)

Note: First paragraph was lightly edited for clarity in a standalone blog.

Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania. You can find her writings and commentaries, including "How barrier to Stein as viable presidential candidate is man-made," at landturn.com/blog. ​

Related: U.S. presidential sweepstakes a Public-Pop Partnership for Almighty Interests (2024)
​Related: Discrepancy with Green Party presidential candidate: my correspondence (2021)
Related: Discrepancy with Green Party presidential candidate: my correspondence, II (2021)
Related: Getting on the ballot as a third-party candidate in Pennsylvania (2022)
Related: Getting on the ballot as a third-party candidate in Pennsylvania, II (2022)
​Related: "The Case for an Independent Left Party" (Hawkins) (2020)
Related: Reaching out to third-party candidates for Harrisburg candidate forum (2022)
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I heard no mention of it besides my answer to someone who had asked me, "What is today?"

I appreciate that the Green Party recognizes May Day in support of labor -- period. I believe the Democratic Party supports mainly American labor if organized into a likely voting bloc -- i.e. labor unions.

That's no shade on labor unions -- just the Dems' alignment to organized labor if the benefactor of its members' collective vote in elections.
​
Labor as a voting bloc can be seen from outfits aligned with the Republican Party, too. Dave Sunday (D.A., York), for example, won the PA Republican primary for attorney general recently. Besides the PA Republican Party, endorsements for his stauncher rival Craig Williams (state rep., Delaware) came from a York County police lodge and the PA Sheriffs Association PAC.

A post shared from a May Day message on Facebook by the Green Party of the United States

Note: Post was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find her writings and commentaries, including "When Democrats, Republicans are kind-of for labor" at landturn.com/blog.

Related: The marijuana advocacy one Pa. legalization lawmaker overlooked (2021)
Related: What influenced me to reconsider participation in electoral policies (2019)
​Related: "The Case for an Independent Left Party" (Hawkins) (2020)
​​Related: Working conditions as a home health aide (2019)
Related: Why rent control is more helpful than affordable housing alone (2023)
Related: How employment might boost wellness in a pandemic (2020)
Related: Opposition candidate for president reacts to Trump, Biden debate (2020)
​Related: How barrier for Stein as viable presidential candidate is man-made (2024)