Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell Undergoes Double Lung Transplant Surgery At The Cleveland Clinic (What is the life span of a lung transplant recipient? Why are Blacks less likely to get one?)
Posted Tuesday, September 22, 2009
By Kathy Wray Coleman
(Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Presiding Judge Nancy McDonnell is recovering from double lung transplant surgery that was undertaken on Sunday at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Cleveland Oh. A judge of 11 years, she began presiding over the Common Pleas Court General Division in 2006 when a majority of her colleagues dumped Richard McMonagle, a Republican, and chose the 49-year-old McDonnell, a Democrat with ties to the Democratic Party. She also serves as the administrative judge in that court, which has only three Black judges in spite of a Black population in Cuyahoga County that is roughly 30 percent. The county is the largest in Ohio and includes Cleveland and its outer suburbs.
As the administrative and presiding judge of the court's general (criminal and civil) division, McDonnell handles a reduced case load for her own docket, a wide range of bureaucratic and procedural matters for the court, and represents the court as a liaison with the Ohio Supreme Court. She also oversees the magistrates of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Department and rules on affidavits of prejudice filed municipal court judges in Ohio, though affidavits of prejudice against common pleas judges, including McDonnell herself, that hear felony cases, civil cases seeking damages over $15 thousand and other matters, are reviewed and determined by the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
“We will pray for the judge's recovery,” said Community Activist Ada Averyhart. “We may not agree with everything our judges do, but we honor them and still wish them good health and prosperity.”
A therapeutic measure of last resort, lung transplants are necessary relative to a variety of medical conditions such as cancer and sarcoidosis, a rare disease predominantly found in Black women that can be genetically transferred and eats at chosen parts of the body like a lung or heart.
Some patients, like McDonnell, require a double lung transplant due to more serious situations such as cystic fibrosis or heightened sarcoidosis, the disease that killed Black comedian Bernie Mack last year at age 50. Neither doctors nor a spokesperson for McDonnell has announced why the popular judge needed the transplant, though she may be in better shape than most, having received a double rather than a single lung transplant, according to a report recently issued by researchers at John Hopkins University. That study found that factor as most determinant of the life span of a recipient, which is typically 5 to 7 years for a single lung transplant.
Fighting rejection is an ongoing process because the body's immune system considers the transplanted organ as an invader (much like an infection) and may attack it. A December 2008 report of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a research initiative administered by The Arbor Research Collaborative in cooperation with the University of Michigan, reveals that over 2,000 people are on waiting lists nationwide for lung transplants.
Blacks are less likely to receive lung transplants in comparison to their White counterparts, a study commissioned at the Columbia University Medical Center found. Also, the issue over whether securing access to a double lung transplant is motivated by race, socioeconomics or prestige, and whether recipients should be limited to single transplants to extend the number of patients receiving them in the Black community, remains a topic of discussion among some Black Civil Rights organizations such as the NAACP.
Common Pleas Judge Eileen A. Gallagher is standing in until McDonnell returns to her post.
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By Kathy Wray Coleman
(Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Presiding Judge Nancy McDonnell is recovering from double lung transplant surgery that was undertaken on Sunday at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Cleveland Oh. A judge of 11 years, she began presiding over the Common Pleas Court General Division in 2006 when a majority of her colleagues dumped Richard McMonagle, a Republican, and chose the 49-year-old McDonnell, a Democrat with ties to the Democratic Party. She also serves as the administrative judge in that court, which has only three Black judges in spite of a Black population in Cuyahoga County that is roughly 30 percent. The county is the largest in Ohio and includes Cleveland and its outer suburbs.
As the administrative and presiding judge of the court's general (criminal and civil) division, McDonnell handles a reduced case load for her own docket, a wide range of bureaucratic and procedural matters for the court, and represents the court as a liaison with the Ohio Supreme Court. She also oversees the magistrates of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Department and rules on affidavits of prejudice filed municipal court judges in Ohio, though affidavits of prejudice against common pleas judges, including McDonnell herself, that hear felony cases, civil cases seeking damages over $15 thousand and other matters, are reviewed and determined by the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
“We will pray for the judge's recovery,” said Community Activist Ada Averyhart. “We may not agree with everything our judges do, but we honor them and still wish them good health and prosperity.”
A therapeutic measure of last resort, lung transplants are necessary relative to a variety of medical conditions such as cancer and sarcoidosis, a rare disease predominantly found in Black women that can be genetically transferred and eats at chosen parts of the body like a lung or heart.
Some patients, like McDonnell, require a double lung transplant due to more serious situations such as cystic fibrosis or heightened sarcoidosis, the disease that killed Black comedian Bernie Mack last year at age 50. Neither doctors nor a spokesperson for McDonnell has announced why the popular judge needed the transplant, though she may be in better shape than most, having received a double rather than a single lung transplant, according to a report recently issued by researchers at John Hopkins University. That study found that factor as most determinant of the life span of a recipient, which is typically 5 to 7 years for a single lung transplant.
Fighting rejection is an ongoing process because the body's immune system considers the transplanted organ as an invader (much like an infection) and may attack it. A December 2008 report of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a research initiative administered by The Arbor Research Collaborative in cooperation with the University of Michigan, reveals that over 2,000 people are on waiting lists nationwide for lung transplants.
Blacks are less likely to receive lung transplants in comparison to their White counterparts, a study commissioned at the Columbia University Medical Center found. Also, the issue over whether securing access to a double lung transplant is motivated by race, socioeconomics or prestige, and whether recipients should be limited to single transplants to extend the number of patients receiving them in the Black community, remains a topic of discussion among some Black Civil Rights organizations such as the NAACP.
Common Pleas Judge Eileen A. Gallagher is standing in until McDonnell returns to her post.
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