Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZY, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Nicole. Nice to be back off for
Speaker 2: a few days around the holiday weekend. I want to
Speaker 2: thank Gary Tangway in Morgan White for sitting in and
Speaker 2: allowing me to spend a little bit of time away
Speaker 2: from the microphone. But I am back. We'll be back tonight,
Speaker 2: Tomorrow night, and on Friday night and then all of
Speaker 2: next week. So a you're gonna get me for the
Speaker 2: next week and a half, that is for sure. Buckle up.
Speaker 2: We have a lot coming up tonight. By the way,
Speaker 2: my name is Dan Ray and the host of the show,
Speaker 2: for whom the show is aptly named Knight's Side with
Speaker 2: Dan Ray. Just to give you a little bit of
Speaker 2: a sense of what we're going to be doing later
Speaker 2: on tonight, I'm going to talk about it looks like
Speaker 2: a mayoral race here in Boston, and it looks as
Speaker 2: if Josh Kraft, son of the New England Patriots owner
Speaker 2: Robert Craft may very soon preps even as early as February,
Speaker 2: announced that he will be a candidate for mayor here
Speaker 2: in Boston against Mayor Michelle wo So that gives us
Speaker 2: something to talk about for the balance of twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: or at least too early November, and then later on tonight,
Speaker 2: beginning I'm guessing around ten o'clock, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about the executive orders issued by President Trump in the
Speaker 2: last couple of days. As I kind of mention it,
Speaker 2: the good, the bad, and the questionable. So there are
Speaker 2: some which I think will long overdue and some which
Speaker 2: I think we're a little bit of an overreach. But
Speaker 2: we'll get to all of that during the nine o'clock,
Speaker 2: ten o'clock at eleven o'clock hours. This hour, we have
Speaker 2: four guests here on the night Side News Update, and
Speaker 2: we're going to start off with Candace Lightner. She's the
Speaker 2: founder and president of an organization called We Save Lives,
Speaker 2: and there's sort of a subtitle here ending the backseat
Speaker 2: driver stigma. Welcome Candace Lightner to Night's Eide. How are
Speaker 2: you this evening.
Speaker 3: I'm fine, and thank you for having me very well.
Speaker 2: Now, first of all, I'm a bit of a back
Speaker 2: seat driver, but I don't think that's the back seat
Speaker 2: driver you're talking about. If I'm sitting on the passenger side,
Speaker 2: I like to help the driver. I like to when
Speaker 2: we're at an intersection, I like to check the ride
Speaker 2: and tell my wife or whomever I'm driving with, you're
Speaker 2: all clear, Oh there's two cars coming or whatever. So
Speaker 2: I mean, but that's really not what you're talking about here.
Speaker 2: You're talking about speaking up to save lives. Tell us
Speaker 2: about your program We Save Lives.
Speaker 3: We launched National Passenger Safety Week several years ago as
Speaker 3: a result of my giving up my car and becoming
Speaker 3: a passenger. And when I did, I realized that, oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, I have to start setting boundaries for drivers
Speaker 3: so that people know not to use their cell phones Bluetooth.
Speaker 3: I had to do this with friends, taxi drivers, and
Speaker 3: it occurred to me after doing this for a while, see,
Speaker 3: I wonder how many other people think to do this too,
Speaker 3: because in reality, it could save your life. And so
Speaker 3: I just became so interested and passionate I still am
Speaker 3: about the issue of passenger safety that I was able
Speaker 3: to put together a great group of organizations, more than
Speaker 3: sixty and we launched this which is now recognized by
Speaker 3: the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and it's called National
Speaker 3: Passenger Safety Week. You're right, we want passengers, Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Said, I just want to go catch something here. You
Speaker 2: said that you gave up your right to drive. Did
Speaker 2: you have some sort of you sound quite young. Did
Speaker 2: you have some sort of a medical issue that or
Speaker 2: did you do this voluntarily? Or did you get tired
Speaker 2: of driving?
Speaker 3: What was it that's recorded?
Speaker 4: I know?
Speaker 3: I actually was in a crash before this with a
Speaker 3: distracted driver totaled both of our cars and broke back.
Speaker 3: And so as a result of that, I decided to
Speaker 3: give up my car for a period of time. Actually
Speaker 3: I gave it up for about three years, and I
Speaker 3: actually just bought another one about a year ago. But
Speaker 3: during that three years I became a passenger. And you
Speaker 3: really don't think about what the driver is doing until
Speaker 3: you become a passenger as often and as long as
Speaker 3: I did. And I'll tell you, though, the thing that
Speaker 3: really got to me is I electure at Columbia and
Speaker 3: I would talk to posts NBA students and I would
Speaker 3: ask them how many of you had written in the
Speaker 3: car with somebody who's drunk, and so hardly anybody would
Speaker 3: raise their hands. And then I'd say what about if
Speaker 3: they're drugged? And they'd say, well, legal or illegal drugs?
Speaker 3: I'd say both, doesn't matter, and they more of them
Speaker 3: would raise their hands, and then I would say, well,
Speaker 3: how many of you you have written in a car
Speaker 3: with someone who's distracted? And everybody rose their raised their hands,
Speaker 3: and I looked at them and I said, why would
Speaker 3: you do that? Why would you risk your life to
Speaker 3: ride with somebody who's driving dangerously? And I was absolutely
Speaker 3: amazed at how many intelligent people would do that. I mean,
Speaker 3: have you ever, oh.
Speaker 2: Have I driven with people who are distracted? Sure? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: But generally I'm like, I'm ninety nine percent of the
Speaker 2: time driving, and I think I'm a pretty good driver,
Speaker 2: and I think I pay attention. And if you looked
Speaker 2: at my, oh what is it now, my eleven year
Speaker 2: old Vovo, you'd say this must be a pretty good driver,
Speaker 2: because it's in pretty good shape. That's that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: I couldn't get into an accident tomorrow, obviously, you know
Speaker 2: all of us have at different point in our life.
Speaker 2: I guess got into some sort of you know, fender benders.
Speaker 2: But it sounds to me like you had a horrific event,
Speaker 2: a life changing event, and and and good good for you.
Speaker 2: Now let me ask you, you obviously deal with people
Speaker 2: whether it's a you said, a cab driver or whomever. Uh,
Speaker 2: and if they're doing something which is clearly dangerous, which
Speaker 2: includes obviously looking at their phone talking on their phone.
Speaker 2: When you drive, when you drive with someone else, do
Speaker 2: you try to help that person who's driving or do
Speaker 2: you feel that when Like I'm I will always when
Speaker 2: we come into an intersection, I'm looking because if the
Speaker 2: car's coming from the right, I'm going to take the
Speaker 2: brunt of the crash. And I've always whether whoever I'm with,
Speaker 2: I'll always try to say, well, you're clearing the right,
Speaker 2: nothing coming, or you got about five seconds here and
Speaker 2: if you if you can't go real quickly, we got
Speaker 2: to you gotta wait, do you or do you sit
Speaker 2: there and oblivious to what's going on outside and you're
Speaker 2: really focusing on the behavior of the driver of your car.
Speaker 3: Well, I tend to be helpful. I tend to be
Speaker 3: a helpful driver. Back to one of the things that
Speaker 3: I do. I don't like it when drivers to get
Speaker 3: directions will upload their maps and look at the map
Speaker 3: on their tiny little iPhone or on their dashboard and
Speaker 3: think that's being safe. So what I do is I
Speaker 3: offer to give them directions. I ask them not to
Speaker 3: look at their maps, but I will give them directions
Speaker 3: and myself when I drive, are you Siri and Sory
Speaker 3: gives me verbal directions And I don't even have my
Speaker 3: phone where I can see it. I mean, it's just down.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. I agree with you on that.
Speaker 2: You sound like the sort of person that I'd be
Speaker 2: willing to get in the car with. Let me ask
Speaker 2: you canvas give us the website so people can get
Speaker 2: more information about We Save Lives. I think it's very important.
Speaker 2: Give people a chance to check out your website. Go
Speaker 2: right ahead. What's the easiest way people can either get
Speaker 2: in touch with you or reach out that we Save Lives.
Speaker 3: Well, you can just go to we Save Lives dot org,
Speaker 3: which is our website. We also have another one, National
Speaker 3: Passenger Safety Week, also dot org and get and link
Speaker 3: onto that. And there's two things that I really want
Speaker 3: to mention here. One is the Courage to Intervene promise.
Speaker 3: And this is one of the things we ask people
Speaker 3: to download and sign. And unlike most promises and pledges,
Speaker 3: this does not say I will not drive drunk, et cetera. Instead,
Speaker 3: it will say it says things like I will stop
Speaker 3: my friends and loved ones from driving buzz, drunk or drug.
Speaker 3: I will not ride with them if they are under
Speaker 3: any kind of influence. And it goes on like that.
Speaker 3: But the second thing I want to mention, mainly because
Speaker 3: I work Similarch so much to his victims of car
Speaker 3: crashes motor vehicle crashes, is the parent checklist. And I
Speaker 3: don't know if you have children and how old they are,
Speaker 3: but I do wonder. And I've had so many parents
Speaker 3: say to me, especially mothers, after telling me about their
Speaker 3: child's death as a result of a passenger in the car,
Speaker 3: if only I had known, If only I had known,
Speaker 3: they were driving with someone who was unlifensed, who wasn't
Speaker 3: a safe driver.
Speaker 2: So we have a parent Not to cut you off here, Candace,
Speaker 2: but I'm stealing time from my next guest. How can
Speaker 2: how can parents get to that information quickly most effectively?
Speaker 3: Again, National Passenger Safety dot or go to tool kids.
Speaker 5: It was fair.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great. That's great. Again, we went a little longer,
Speaker 2: but it's well worth it. Uh, Candace Lightner, the group
Speaker 2: we Save Lives dot org or National Passenger Safe. Thanks
Speaker 2: very much, Candice, best of luck. We'll have you back?
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you, bye bye, very welcome.
Speaker 2: Coming up, we're going to talk about supporting single moms
Speaker 2: during Poverty Awareness Month. Back on Nightside. My name's Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: Back in the big chair here, the host of Nightside,
Speaker 2: coming to you every Monday through Friday night from eight
Speaker 2: until midnight. Got a great show for the balance throughout
Speaker 2: the evening. As a matter of fact, we just did
Speaker 2: a very interesting guest mortcom Coming up on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Our next guest is Alison Carter Marlow. She's the executive
Speaker 2: director the Boston executive director of the Jeremiah Program. Allison,
Speaker 2: whereas we're talking about supporting single moms during Poverty Awareness Month,
Speaker 2: tell us about the Jeremiah Program. How long has it
Speaker 2: been active? And it is also a Boston based program
Speaker 2: as I understand it.
Speaker 6: Sure, Thank you.
Speaker 4: So much for having me. It is a pleasure the
Speaker 4: Jeremy sort of what sort.
Speaker 2: Of microphone do you want here? Allison? I'm getting all
Speaker 2: sorts of Are you on some sort of a headset happened?
Speaker 5: No, I'm not, but I did have a heater plugged
Speaker 5: in is that any better?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Why don't you just Rob will work
Speaker 2: you with worth your fifteen seconds again, it's a better
Speaker 2: audio version. Okay. We're talking with the executive director, the
Speaker 2: Boston executive director of a group called the Jeremiah Program.
Speaker 2: And this is a program that mark's January National Poverty
Speaker 2: in American Awareness Month, and the focus is on supporting
Speaker 2: single moms during Poverty Awareness Month. And certainly, if we
Speaker 2: are ever to break the poverty cycle in this country,
Speaker 2: I think we're going to have to focus on single
Speaker 2: moms who are trying to care for themselves as well
Speaker 2: as their children. Alison, I think we have you back.
Speaker 2: Let's hope that the audio is a little better. Go
Speaker 2: right ahead, Allison, tell us about the German.
Speaker 4: Program so much.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I hope this is better and stronger.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: The Jeremiah Program was founded in the early nineties by
Speaker 5: a priest in Minnesota who was seeing a number of
Speaker 5: young single moms who didn't have stable, affordable quality housing,
Speaker 5: who didn't have childcare, and who didn't seem to be
Speaker 5: on a path towards economic mobility. Most of us would
Speaker 5: define that as college access or what I like to
Speaker 5: call mortgage paying jobs, and so this father founded a
Speaker 5: location in Minneapolis that housed a number of women, provided
Speaker 5: quality childcare on site, and allowed moms to go to
Speaker 5: school and to work. Since nineteen ninety three, there are
Speaker 5: now nine campuses across the country, three in Minnesota, one
Speaker 5: in Nevada, one in Maryland, one in New York, one
Speaker 5: in Texas, one in North Dakota, and one here in Boston.
Speaker 5: The Boston campus has been around since about twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5: Twenty sixteen, we started with a partnership of doctor Richard
Speaker 5: Wiley and the then president and CEO of Jeremiah, Gloria Perez.
Speaker 5: Moms were housed on campus in Beverly, and yet as
Speaker 5: the program evolved, it was clear that moms wanted choices.
Speaker 5: They wanted to be able to go to different colleges,
Speaker 5: access different majors. For some of those moms, Beverly was
Speaker 5: just too far, and so the Jeremiah Boston program now
Speaker 5: encourages moms to go to whatever college makes sense for them.
Speaker 5: Indicot is still a very strong, wonderful partner to the
Speaker 5: Jeremiah program, as his Urban College of Boston Laborarey College
Speaker 5: of Healthcare. Our moms attend sixteen local colleges in Boston.
Speaker 2: There is probably we mentioned Antegoch College. Was that the
Speaker 2: then president Richard Wiley, who worked with you, that.
Speaker 5: Was he was a great friend, a.
Speaker 2: Great friend of mine. Commencement beach at Endercart College in
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. I can't tell you how impressed
Speaker 2: I am with that facility. So during this period of
Speaker 2: time from twenty fourteen to today, you're getting close to
Speaker 2: celebrating ten years here in the greater Boston area, how
Speaker 2: many moms have participated in the program and how many
Speaker 2: different schools have they either attended or matriculated from.
Speaker 5: Sure, so we in twenty twenty four we reached a
Speaker 5: peak and we're serving seventy two moms. Moms graduate or
Speaker 5: may opt out of the program, and so anywhere between
Speaker 5: sixty and seventy moms are served in our program a year.
Speaker 5: Those sixty to seventy moms in twenty twenty four had
Speaker 5: one hundred and twelve children. And our investments are in
Speaker 5: both moms and their children. As I mentioned, our moms
Speaker 5: attend sixteen area local colleges. They choose which college works
Speaker 5: for them. But it's a credit to doctor Wiley Endicott
Speaker 5: understand some of the unique challenges facing parent scholars and
Speaker 5: have just a number of supports that allow a mom
Speaker 5: who chooses that college to do very well.
Speaker 4: I do want to.
Speaker 5: Say that while we invest in moms, provide them coaching,
Speaker 5: provide backup childcare, try to partner with employers who are
Speaker 5: interested in hiring our moms and our graduates, we also
Speaker 5: invest in private tutoring. We subsidize summer camp, and we
Speaker 5: make investments into the children of our mom's five to
Speaker 5: twenty nine accounts. We are a two generational program, and
Speaker 5: we believe that once mom earns that credential, she is
Speaker 5: going to be the most influential in ensuring her children
Speaker 5: do that. They go from first generation college grads to
Speaker 5: second college grads and beyond. We graduate anywhere between four
Speaker 5: to seven moms a year. Moms finish either the Associates degree,
Speaker 5: they may choose to continue on with Jeremiah as they
Speaker 5: pursue their bachelors, or they may in their journey with us.
Speaker 5: Most of our moms are interested in bachelor's degrees.
Speaker 2: So do any of the moms ever come back and
Speaker 2: find themselves actually tutoring others or themselves helping with the program,
Speaker 2: or when they leave the nest, do they leave the
Speaker 2: nest and fly away? No?
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 5: And to this point of you know, poverty awareness, the
Speaker 5: reality is a marathon and not a sprint. Just because
Speaker 5: our moms are earning that college degree, that doesn't always
Speaker 5: magically translate into that mortgage paying job. We have a
Speaker 5: very strong alumni network among Jeremiah moms. We have close
Speaker 5: to thirty women who have graduated in the eight and
Speaker 5: a half years we have been on the scene. Our
Speaker 5: moms have four to six years that they're allowed to
Speaker 5: be in the Jeremiah program and pursue that associates or
Speaker 5: bachelor's degree. Those alum are very interested in some of
Speaker 5: the things most college grads are interested in. That is
Speaker 5: building their social capital, networking, being introduced to folks who
Speaker 5: might have a job opportunity or an internship opportunity. I
Speaker 5: think the thing that distinguishes Jeremiah program from so many
Speaker 5: other programs that support parents scholars. Our moms will speak
Speaker 5: to the sense of community and sisterhood they get to experience.
Speaker 5: We think that's a driver for college persistence in this population,
Speaker 5: and our alum are definitely close and still connected long
Speaker 5: after they graduate from college. There's still Jeremiah alum and
Speaker 5: they do reach back and offer to tutor and mentor
Speaker 5: our current moms.
Speaker 2: That sounds like a great program. How could folks get
Speaker 2: more information on the program or maybe even be a
Speaker 2: little supportive of it in some form of fashion. What's
Speaker 2: the easiest way folks can can find.
Speaker 5: The program www dot Jeremiah program dot org. You can
Speaker 5: look up the Boston campus. We have volunteer opportunities. A
Speaker 5: lot of our donors and supporters like to get involved
Speaker 5: around career panels where we're exposing moms to the different
Speaker 5: fields they might leverage their college degrees and enter. You
Speaker 5: can give and donate. All that information is on our
Speaker 5: website and we certainly accept any ideas people might have
Speaker 5: for sponsoring our events and our programming.
Speaker 2: All right, Jeremiah Program dot org, Allison, sounds like a
Speaker 2: great program. Thanks for joining us tonight, and sorry about
Speaker 2: that a little bit of an audio glitch at the
Speaker 2: audio does much better as a result of taking a
Speaker 2: few seconds to get it squared away. Thank you so much,
Speaker 2: appreciate it. We get back. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: heart transplants. Adult heart transplants. It is amazing to realize
Speaker 2: how many adult heart transplants have been done nationwide. Here
Speaker 2: in New England and most specifically the Tufts Medical Center.
Speaker 2: They completed seventy doult heart transplant last year twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: broke their own record for the second straight year. We'll
Speaker 2: be talking with doctor Michael Kiernan, who's the Associate Chief
Speaker 2: of Cardiology and medical director of the Ventricular assist Device
Speaker 2: Program at Toff's Medical Center. Coming back right after the
Speaker 2: news at the bottom of the Urts Nightside with Dan Ray.
Speaker 1: Stay with us, It's Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: Oh truck Day. I remember doing live shots at Fenway
Speaker 2: Park when I was at Chern for doing Truck Day
Speaker 2: Fenway Park. It is like the end, the unofficial end
Speaker 2: of winter. It was so much fun, something to look
Speaker 2: forward to. I want to now introduce you all of
Speaker 2: you to doctor Michael Kiernan, who is the Associate Chief
Speaker 2: of Cardiology medical director of the Ventricular assist Device Program
Speaker 2: at Tuft's Medical Center. Doctor Kierenan, Welcome to Night Side, sir.
Speaker 4: How are you hi, Dan? Thanks so much for having
Speaker 4: me you in the show. I'm doing great. I appreciate
Speaker 4: the opportunity to speak a little bit about the great
Speaker 4: work that's hippening here at Tough's Medical Center and discuss
Speaker 4: heart failure. So thank you again for having me.
Speaker 2: Well it's going great. And I never realized that, what
Speaker 2: was it about five thousand heart transplants nationwide last year,
Speaker 2: and you guys had a pretty good sized trunk of that.
Speaker 2: But I didn't realize that heart trans transplants were becoming
Speaker 2: I don't want to say common, but so frequent. It's
Speaker 2: been a long way from those first heart transplants back
Speaker 2: in the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, that's right. The transplant program here at
Speaker 4: Tufts began in nineteen eighty five, you know, and since
Speaker 4: that time we've done eight hundred transplants, and of course,
Speaker 4: you know, I think we wish we didn't have to
Speaker 4: do heart transplants, but you know, heart failure remains a
Speaker 4: leading cause of unfortunately death and disability, and so transplants
Speaker 4: really the final solution for patients who are no longer
Speaker 4: responding to medications. But yeah, you're absolutely right, Transplant medicine
Speaker 4: has come a long way, and it's even in recent
Speaker 4: years there's been a number of new innovations that have
Speaker 4: allowed us to dramatically increase the volume of hearts that
Speaker 4: we'll be able to provide to people that could unfortunately
Speaker 4: otherwise be you know, die waiting on the waiting list
Speaker 4: for an organ to become available.
Speaker 2: So before we talk about toughts, and I do want
Speaker 2: to talk about toughs. Because you did seventy adult heart
Speaker 2: transplants last year twenty twenty five, or you broke your
Speaker 2: y it's a new England record for the second straight year.
Speaker 2: As I understand it a lot to be proud of there.
Speaker 2: But I thought that I saw the figure somewhere on
Speaker 2: forty eight hundred nationwide. Was that the figure that that
Speaker 2: I was or did I misread that?
Speaker 4: No, No, that sounds that sounds that sounds right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, approximately, So it's amazing to think, Uh, this is
Speaker 2: a long way from the days of debate and the
Speaker 2: and the the heart transplant pioneers. Let me just ask
Speaker 2: you a really dumb question, because I get paid to
Speaker 2: ask questions dumb or other ways. It has to be
Speaker 2: extraordinarily difficult to perform a heart transplant. I mean, I
Speaker 2: just can't imagine what it is like. I have trouble
Speaker 2: changing the battery in a flashlight. I mean, how give
Speaker 2: us a sense of what it's like in that room
Speaker 2: when you're doing a heart transplant. You have to have
Speaker 2: a team of I'm guessing twelve to fifteen people. They're
Speaker 2: all knowing what they have to do and in what sequence.
Speaker 2: Give us a sense of it, if you.
Speaker 4: Would, well, it does. So Number one, I don't want
Speaker 4: to I don't want to disappoint you, but I'm actually
Speaker 4: not the surgeon, so I'm on the medical side. So
Speaker 4: the cardiologists provide all the care you know, before the
Speaker 4: heart transplant, when the patient's waiting in the intensive care unit,
Speaker 4: and the care once they're out of the operating room.
Speaker 4: But yes, I mean there's the choreography of coordinating the transplants,
Speaker 4: and it takes multiple surgeons because you need a surgeon
Speaker 4: on the donor end, which could be a patient somewhere
Speaker 4: else in the US, retrieving that gift of life, that organ,
Speaker 4: and then of course a team of surgeons on the
Speaker 4: receiving end getting our patient ready to receive that heart.
Speaker 4: And it has to be you know, intimately timed so
Speaker 4: that that heart that's in transport coming to us is
Speaker 4: ready to enter you know, the patient's body to restore again.
Speaker 2: It's a short period of time. Generally it's someone who
Speaker 2: has died. As I understand that if I'm wrong, please
Speaker 2: help me out. In a motiv a crash or something
Speaker 2: like that, where their organs are donated and the heart,
Speaker 2: what's it about twelve hours that the heart can remain
Speaker 2: viable because I know sometimes you'll see the transplant of
Speaker 2: course here and the person who donated the heart was
Speaker 2: in an accident in Ohio or something like that. Am
Speaker 2: I correct on that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Well, so that's one of the new innovations, to
Speaker 4: be honest. So you know, historically we were actually in
Speaker 4: a four up until you know, the recent last five
Speaker 4: years or so, we had about a five hour window
Speaker 4: or four you know, four to five hour window at
Speaker 4: most where we needed to be able to get a
Speaker 4: heart that wasn't beating out of the donor back into
Speaker 4: our recipient. But there's new tools that have allowed us
Speaker 4: to extend that where we have an organ that's now
Speaker 4: beating outside of the body and what we call our
Speaker 4: perfusion system that can allow us to travel. We've actually
Speaker 4: our surgical team has retrieved an organ from Alaska and
Speaker 4: not on you know, from the West coast is now
Speaker 4: kind of a frequent occurrence for our patients to get
Speaker 4: donations from again from the west coast, where five ten
Speaker 4: years ago that was impossible. So that is one of
Speaker 4: the innovations that allowed this.
Speaker 2: So what's the window The window has expanded from four
Speaker 2: to five hours, it's still a very limited window.
Speaker 4: I mean, well it's still yeah, I mean usually, well,
Speaker 4: the I would say, certainly, it's usually within twelve hours
Speaker 4: or so. It is a fair number. I wouldn't say
Speaker 4: there's not you know, there's not a tail end of it,
Speaker 4: to be honest, once heart is on this profusion system,
Speaker 4: but in general these are done within about twelve hours.
Speaker 2: Wow. Just amazing. And then if I could ask has
Speaker 2: the life expectancy of the dony us, I assume it's
Speaker 2: substantially increasing over time. I mean, you know, depending on
Speaker 2: the age of the recipient in their own physical condition.
Speaker 2: What's the lifespan that we're talking about when someone is
Speaker 2: successfully transplanted.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well let me start with the So let me
Speaker 4: in terms of framing it in terms of what is
Speaker 4: really gained. So in people with really end stage disease,
Speaker 4: it's generally a coin toss whether or not, they're going
Speaker 4: to be alive a year from now, and so that's
Speaker 4: why you're you know, you take the risk of doing
Speaker 4: a heart transplant, but when you know things go well,
Speaker 4: which they most commonly do. We're talking about on average,
Speaker 4: close to fourteen to fifteen years of additional life, and
Speaker 4: that means on average, so half of patients do better
Speaker 4: than that, but of course half are on the on
Speaker 4: the shorter side of that as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, but still the idea of fourteen of fifteen years.
Speaker 7: You said on average, that's an average, correct, So yeah,
Speaker 7: we're you know, we're restoring a decade and half of
Speaker 7: life to people that otherwise would have, you know, probably
Speaker 7: a year or less, and of course that year or
Speaker 7: less is incredibly limited because of the disability and symptoms
Speaker 7: these patients have.
Speaker 2: Wow, it is just incredible what you folks can do.
Speaker 2: And I never imagined it would be fourteen to fifteen
Speaker 2: years on average. Is this is so difficult to talk
Speaker 2: to you about because I'm not even sure the best
Speaker 2: questions to ask. Obviously, we celebrate what you've been able
Speaker 2: to do at TOFFS, and we realize that you're rising
Speaker 2: to just I think an incredible I mean, I know
Speaker 2: little about medicine, believe me, and I'm overwhelmed and honored
Speaker 2: to talk to someone like yourself who's been involved in
Speaker 2: all of this. Where do you think is where do
Speaker 2: you think will be five and ten years from now?
Speaker 2: At some point I assume the advance the advance advances
Speaker 2: are going to have to taper off, do you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've made tremendous strides in the last fifty years,
Speaker 2: ken is there's still room to grow and lengthen the
Speaker 2: time that people's lives might be extended.
Speaker 4: I think certainly there's ways to continue to improve utilization
Speaker 4: of organs that are are that may be discarded for
Speaker 4: a number of reasons, and so by doing that that
Speaker 4: allows greater access to patients that wouldn't have access to
Speaker 4: this therapy. So there's lots of room for improvement there.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a whole ton of innovations that are
Speaker 4: occurring in transplant and heart filiar medicine that are incredibly
Speaker 4: exciting that you hear about in the news in terms
Speaker 4: of zeno transplantation, which is genetically modified organs, but that
Speaker 4: is still I mean, that's more than a decade I
Speaker 4: would say into the horizon. So that's far from being available,
Speaker 4: but there's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about thinking
Speaker 4: towards that direction.
Speaker 2: And let me just ask you a question as a cardiologist,
Speaker 2: what is the one thing or the one or two
Speaker 2: or three things that people can do, irrespective of their age,
Speaker 2: that that advice you would give my audience to stop
Speaker 2: doing or to begin to do that will lengthen the
Speaker 2: time that their own hearts will work well for them,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: And I think it's what people know. It's to get
Speaker 4: up and move, you know, it's to lead a healthy life.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's a thing we all hear about regular
Speaker 4: it's exercise, it's it's diet. Food, food is medicine. You
Speaker 4: are what you eat, but you need to be exercising,
Speaker 4: moving and eating well. And then of course, you know, uh,
Speaker 4: not smoking. We've made a lot of strides as a
Speaker 4: community in terms of awareness of the ills of tobacco
Speaker 4: and avoidance of alcohol as well. Well.
Speaker 2: I just want to say thank you very much for
Speaker 2: what you do. Thank you so much for being with
Speaker 2: us tonight. Hopefully a lot of people now realize that
Speaker 2: that the Tofts and and all the great hospitals we
Speaker 2: were fortunate enough to have in our area just doing
Speaker 2: what most of us would think of this miracles every
Speaker 2: day of the week. So thanks very much for your
Speaker 2: time and your information tonight. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Dan, thank you for helping to bring awareness to this.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. It's great speaking with you.
Speaker 2: That's the least I can do, my friend. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you, Doctor Michael Caernan, Associate Chief of Cardiology, Medical
Speaker 2: Director of the Ventricular assist Device Program at Tufts Medical Center.
Speaker 2: Thanks again, doctor m Doctor Kernan, I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4: You're very welcome, Take care, goodbye bye.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we'll talk about something a little lighter,
Speaker 2: and that is Glocester's Soul Salty fourth annual Festival, UH
Speaker 2: coming up this weekend, believe it or not. And we
Speaker 2: got all the information from you from Oliver Barcer, who's
Speaker 2: the director of the Cape Inn Museum. Coming back on
Speaker 2: Nightside right after the break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Nice Side Studios. I'm do WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, it's been cold couple of days or a
Speaker 2: few days here in New England, and I'm hoping that
Speaker 2: the weather's going to warm up a little bit as
Speaker 2: we get towards this coming weekend. And I tell you this,
Speaker 2: we can get you some great activity if you want
Speaker 2: to go north to Gloucester with us. As Oliver Barker,
Speaker 2: he's the director of the Cape Ian Museum, and Oliver,
Speaker 2: I believe we talked about this a year ago, and
Speaker 2: I hope that the publicity helped a little bit. This
Speaker 2: is the fourth annual Gloucesters So Salty Festival coming up.
Speaker 2: I guess this weekend. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: Dan?
Speaker 6: It is great to speak to you, And yes, the
Speaker 6: publicity was wonderful last year. We actually had eighteen hundred
Speaker 6: visitors who braved the cold weather and joined us last
Speaker 6: year to enjoy some of the fish cities recognizably salty character.
Speaker 6: So we follow this again. We've got ten ice sculptures
Speaker 6: that will be on view.
Speaker 2: And they're gonna be They're gonna be a good shape. Oliver.
Speaker 2: I think the ice sculptors are going to last.
Speaker 6: I think so, but we want people to come and
Speaker 6: see them this Saturday and Sunday if possible. I'm told
Speaker 6: that it's gonna get marginally warmer this weekend, so I'm
Speaker 6: hoping that listeners can rug up and join us for
Speaker 6: what should be a lot of fun this weekend in Gloucesgow.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I was out today and I gotta
Speaker 2: tell you, when the wind it didn't blow, it wasn't
Speaker 2: that bad. So if we can get you a weekend
Speaker 2: up there without a lot of wind. You have indoor activities,
Speaker 2: you have outdoor activities. Let's let's pick some of the activities.
Speaker 2: It's Saturday and Sunday. Okay, that's the first thing they
Speaker 2: have to know. And both days it goes from ten
Speaker 2: in the morning until five in the afternoon, so the
Speaker 2: sun is up at ten o'clock. Put it's gonna gonna
Speaker 2: the best part of the day. Give us an example
Speaker 2: of what you can do on Saturday, and let's talk
Speaker 2: about some of the things on Sunday.
Speaker 6: Fantastic. So on Saturday, one of the great highlights, something
Speaker 6: that was so popular last year was a sing along
Speaker 6: sea shanty presentation. This is being offered by a group
Speaker 6: called Three Ship, Three Sheets to the Wind, and that's
Speaker 6: going to be taking place between two and four at
Speaker 6: the Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Gloucester. That's just a
Speaker 6: wonderful way of hearing people sitting and actually joining in
Speaker 6: many of the choruses. So I think that would be
Speaker 6: a great indoor activity once you've come and seen all
Speaker 6: the sculptures outside, and then moving to Sunday.
Speaker 2: We've got before before Well I'm not going to rush
Speaker 2: you here before you moved to Sunday. Okay, wait a second,
Speaker 2: I'm talking about you can get breakfast, lunch, or dinner,
Speaker 2: or you can get a or a sweet and salty
Speaker 2: cocktail in an igloo. Is that an actual igloo at
Speaker 2: mile mark or one on Route one point three?
Speaker 6: It's an actual igloo.
Speaker 2: Yes, we're talking.
Speaker 6: We've got. There are all sorts of salty and sweet
Speaker 6: treats that many of our sister businesses along Main Street
Speaker 6: are offering. We've got there's a bakery that's offering cookies
Speaker 6: with special mold and salt on top. And and if
Speaker 6: you want, if you're shopping, have shopping in mind. I
Speaker 6: know one of our local vendors will be selling specially
Speaker 6: warm socks to keep everyone cozy as they as they
Speaker 6: walk around the downtown.
Speaker 2: Well, I get this one. You buy one, you get
Speaker 2: one free chocolate chip cookie. I would be stopping there
Speaker 2: because that's pretty good to me cookie guy. Right, absolutely,
Speaker 2: So then let's move that's that's all weekend. But so
Speaker 2: on Saturday you mentioned the sea shanties buy three Sheets
Speaker 2: to the Wind. Yes, that that should be a lot
Speaker 2: of fun. That's from two to four at the Unitarian
Speaker 2: Universalist Church. You got some open mic poetry readings you
Speaker 2: got on Sunday. Let's let's talk about some of the
Speaker 2: things on Sunday. What's paint salt water dough fish? What's
Speaker 2: that mean?
Speaker 6: So that's one of our local businesses called Local Colors
Speaker 6: that has fish that are made out of dough that
Speaker 6: people will be able to paint. Speaking of kids activities,
Speaker 6: a sister institution, Maritime Gloucester on Gloucesters Waterfront is offering
Speaker 6: a kid's activity between ten and four as well. So
Speaker 6: there are lots of things for people to get there,
Speaker 6: get involved in and bring their families, and lots of
Speaker 6: family friendly activities that are off of this weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's there's again when you talk about the
Speaker 2: ice sculptures and a looking at some of the ones
Speaker 2: from last year, they're just beautiful. When are they already
Speaker 2: created or are in the process of being created? You know,
Speaker 2: today and tomorrow and Friday.
Speaker 6: So the sculptures are all actually being made by local
Speaker 6: artists by the name of Don Chappelle. He's creating them
Speaker 6: as we speak in his studio in North Andover and
Speaker 6: he'll be delivering them on Saturday morning. And for anyone
Speaker 6: who's there early, it's fascinating to see him actually assemble
Speaker 6: the sculptures in situ who he comes with a chainsaw
Speaker 6: and he makes certain sort of touch ups as his
Speaker 6: positioning the pieces and making sure that they're stable. So
Speaker 6: they're being created as we speak and will be installed
Speaker 6: on Saturday. And we have ten sculptures this year, with
Speaker 6: subjects ranging from fancy fish and lobsters all the way through.
Speaker 6: Many of your listens listeners might be familiar with a
Speaker 6: great author and a great book by Virginia Lee Burton
Speaker 6: called Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. It's a book
Speaker 6: that many kids grew up with a wonderful story, and
Speaker 6: Virginia Lee Burton is a or was a local in Gloucester.
Speaker 6: And so we're actually having Don Chappelle make an image
Speaker 6: of the Steam Shovel for younger audiences this weekend as well.
Speaker 2: That's great, well, Oliver it's great. It looks as if
Speaker 2: there's a lot of activity up there. People conduct in
Speaker 2: and out of the shops and stay warm. A lot
Speaker 2: of it is all a kid friendly and family friend friendly,
Speaker 2: as they say, poetry readings, free stickers, you know, food fun.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a great weekend, and it's a great
Speaker 2: weekend to get us through Jeduary. And it's a real
Speaker 2: tradition in Gloucester. This is the fourth annual one, so
Speaker 2: they can get up there. Where can they get information
Speaker 2: if they want to get all the information that I'm
Speaker 2: looking at right now? What's your website?
Speaker 6: So the website for the museum is Capeandmuseum dot org.
Speaker 6: And if people on Saturday or Sunday head straight to
Speaker 6: the museum, which is a twenty seven pleasant street in Gloucester.
Speaker 6: I'll be there with a group of volunteers. We're going
Speaker 6: to be handing out guides so that people can find
Speaker 6: the sculptures and also access all the great other offerings
Speaker 6: that are taking a place around the downtown this weekend.
Speaker 2: That's great, well, Oliver Barker, I hope that you have
Speaker 2: much success. Is even more success than a year ago.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: Gloucester is so salty and it's the end of January.
Speaker 2: It's the last full weekend in January, so take advantage
Speaker 2: of it all, particularly if you're here within the New
Speaker 2: England area. It would be a great day either Saturday
Speaker 2: Sunday from ten to five. Oliver, thanks for coming back
Speaker 2: and joining us again. We'll talk to you next year.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 6: Thanks again, Dan, take care, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2: Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: the Boston Mayor's race, which seems to be coalescing. It
Speaker 2: appears that Josh Craft. We'll talking about Josh Craft and
Speaker 2: talk about whether or not Mayor Michelle Wu will now
Speaker 2: actually have a race to deal with this year. It's
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, it said mayor all election year in Boston.
Speaker 2: We now have maybe a second candidate, maybe there'll be more,
Speaker 2: who knows. We'll talk about it right after the nine
Speaker 2: and then later on tonight we will talk about the
Speaker 2: presidents and some of the executive orders. I'm calling it
Speaker 2: the good, the bad, and the questionable. Back on Night's side,
Speaker 2: right after the nine o'clock news.
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