It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Cole looks like they're going to sweep the Sultan's get the duck boats ready, That's what I say. We're ready. My name is Dan Ray. I'm always ready, ready for you from eight to midnight Monday through Friday, right here on WBZ Boston's News Radio. Remind you to get the new iHeart app. Pretty easy to get it, you know, go up, get to your app store, get the app, put it on your phone and whatever. And then we
will always beach us fingertip away. But make us your first preset and no matter where you are on the world, you can listen to us three sixty five twenty four to seven. Rob Brooks, our great producer on this program, is back at Broadcast Central at the Medford headquarters and
we are all set to start tonight. We have four very interesting different guests here, including Nicole Davis will join us at eight thirty, so you Nicole Davis fans want to stick around for that, and we will talk about an American woman from Massachusetts living in Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan. We'll talk about that and talk about the big problem
that the Trump administration had with this signal app. The Democrats are looking for a scalp and President Trump is basically standing by his man or men whatever in this whole, this whole kerfuffle. We'll get to all of that later on tonight, but first let's talk about high food prices. I think everybody, no matter what your status in life, has experienced high food prices in recent months, going back actually for a few years. Coming out of COVID with
US is Estra Cone. She's the vice president of communications and public affairs at a very interesting app called flash Food. Estra Cone, welcome to NIGHTSID. How are you?
How are you Dan?
Thanks so much for having me great.
So tell us about flash Food is an app. So people have to pull this down and I assume put it on their phone. That's the first thing that has to be done.
Correct, yes, yes, correct, But it is free, so whether you have an Android or an iPhone, you could just download it directly from the app store, but.
You have to have Just to make sure people understand in my audience, you have to have a smartphone a device.
Do you do you have to have a smartphone, Yes, you do have to have a smartphone. For now. Okay, So how it works?
What exactly? What exactly? Once you've pulled this down and it's on your smartphone, how do you use it? As I understand that this is a nationwide service which basically gives people some opportunities to get to their local some of the not all, but some of their local grocery stores and purchase food at a deep all sorts of food, particularly groceries and fruits and vegetables, all at a discounted price. Tell us how it works, sure.
So when you download the app, what you'll see is a map of all the flash food locations in your area. And how it works is we partner with grocery stores. The goal is really to reduce the amount of food that grocery stores throw away, which I don't know if you or your listeners know, but there's a lot of food that goes to waste in the United States. And how it works is they lift items on the app for fifty percent off. This can be items in surplus
or maybe it's nearing, it's best by date. It's mostly fresh food, so produce meat, dairy, prepared foods, things like that, and so groceries lift these items on the app and then you shop them and go and pick them up in store.
Now, we heard in half the United States right now, so in every amazing part of the country you have specific grocery chains. And here in Massachusetts, I checked the app out earlier. It looked as if your big partner here in eastern Massachusetts is Stop and Shop, which is a huge grocery chain here east of Worcester, you know,
right from central Massachusetts heading east. I give me a couple of the other food chains that you might be grocery chains you might be working with here in the northeast, so that people who are listening in other some of our contiguous states might take advantage of this app as well. I don't want them to think it is just a Boston or a Massachusetts benefit.
Go right ahead, Yeah, so yeah, definitely. So Tops is another big one in sort of the upstate New York area. We have the Giant Company and Giant Eagle down sort of in Pennsylvania around those parts. And then we have you know, as you head out west Meyer in the Michigan area, Family Fair has patients all across. So we're in about thirty three states right now, so not quite national, but we're growing really quickly and adding new stores every day.
So you go from Massachusetts as far as California, I believe.
Correct, we do, Yes, we have. We just recently launched California, I would say, in the last year or so. So, yes, we do have some partnerships up in northern California. Mostly.
Any idea at this point as to how many members you have or how many folks have downloaded your app, or for that matter, any idea about how many people have taken advantage of this and actually found great groceries again, fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, I hope, maybe some day old muffins and things like that for the sweet tooth, for the sweet teeth there all of us have any idea how much food has actually been circulated as a result of this app.
Yeah, absolutely, We've got about a million and a half users all across North America. We're pretty national in Canada as well. Collectively, everyone saved about three hundred million dollars on their groceries all in so it really is a pretty meaningful app for a lot of people. And that's whether you know, to your point, everyone across the income spectrum wants to save money on groceries, right, So we've
got a lot of folks using the app. Some people have a lot of fun, you know, finding good deals and seeing what they can cook up with it. Some people really use it as a utility and you know, buy meat to serve their family meet at every meal. So it's a really great app for a lot of people.
So yeah, we've diverted from landfill about one hundred and thirty million pounds of food, which is pretty meaningful from a environmental perspective, but really the biggest impact is the economic one for a lot of people.
And how long has this app been available? I'm sure obviously you started out slowly, but how how old is the app?
Yeah, so we were founded in twenty sixteen in Canada and we came into the States in late twenty eighteen early twenty nineteen, so we're still relatively young, but we're growing quickly and adding new partners every day.
I'll tell you it sounds like it sounds like a win win win the stores as opposed to having having to ship stuff out product out of their stores, they have a chance to sell it and maybe recover or break even. And people on the app have much tastier meals and better presentations to their family. It's a great idea, Esther, and so thank you so much for bringing up us up to date on this. How can folks find it?
I mean, the average person who's listening tonight may have a smartphone and they probably know how to go to their app store. Any advice you might want to give someone who is for the first time trying to find an app, would you like to give them a little bit more sure?
Yep, yeah, great question. So Also, if it's easier, just head to flash food dot com and there will be links there to go download the app. That might be easier for some folks, but just type flash food into whatever app store you use, whether that's the Apple App Store of the Google play Store, download the app, and then first thing you'll see is a map of all the locations in your area, and you can shop deals right in there.
Sounds great, well, Esther, I appreciate you taking the time tonight, and hopefully we've spread the word. It's not often we can spread word to as many people who could benefit from this and not only save money but eat a lot better. So thank you so much, well, thank you so much for having me.
It's great talking to you.
You bet you. We'll talk again now we can back on the other side. We have a guest who was with us about a year ago, Tony Wilson, aka the Young James Brown. He is a James Brown performer and he performs here in Boston every year around this time in commemoration of a conco that James Brown, the hardest working man in show business, conducted back in April of nineteen sixty eight, which kept the top of the city was a powder keg in the hours and days after
the assassination of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King. And there is a concert coming up on April fifth which we want to tell you about. And we'll be talking with performer, artist, singer, impersonator Tony Wilson right after this break on Nightside.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
On April fifth this year at the Prince Hall in Dorchester, there will be yet again a James Brown Boston Tribute concert. James Brown played an incredibly important role here in Boston back in the April of nineteen sixty eight, after the assassination of Reverend doctor Martin Luther King, who of course had some roots here in Boston, wasn't born in Boston, but went to school here, met his wife, Coreta Scott
King here in Boston. Uh And at the time that uh doctor James assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, they were tinder boxes all across America, including Boston. And with us is Tony Wilson. Tony's been with us before. Uh. He is the young James Brown, the godson of soul life. As the young James Brown, Tony Wilson, you will be headlining this program once again and welcome back to night, said, how are you my friend?
Thank you so much, Dad, I really appreciate it, you know, And uh, this is gonna be a really good thing. It's first of all, it's brought by Big Time Entertainment and myself, young James Brown. And this, this whole entire uh James Brosse Boston is dedicated to the innocent convicts of Darrell Jones Make Hussin, Darren Howe fu kwan you know. So we we just want to say this was a
historical moment in time that would never be forgotten. In sixty eight, James Brown was set to perform at the Boston Guarden April fifth, as you know in sixty eight and one of the biggest tragedies occurred on April fourth, and that was the assassination as you mentioned, the Martin Luther King and so the city of Boston was shocked and they rode up and they could feel attention in the air. So there were many talks about stopping the
concert which was going on, performed by James Brown. And it was a pioneer in black leadership with city Councilman Tom Atkins, Deputy Mayor Jeep Jones, and the NIVO Mayor White, Kevin White, and they had the discussion about the you know, shutting down to James by performance in April fifth, but listening to this team, they decided to go on with it. So that was the day James Brown asked the Bostonians to just keep it cool, stand down for what could
have been another tragic day for Bostonians. And that being said, as you mentioned, April fifth, at Prince Hall from six to ten, we will be having a free, free, free concert celebrating James Well, you know, it's.
An interesting story. I'm old enough to remember it. I knew Kevin White, the mayor of Boston at the time. Very well, he was only in his really his first year, first few months. He served mayor as mayor up here for sixteen years. He was elected four times, and he was he really had a big impact on the city, but no impact probably bigger than that night in which he met personally with James Brown. And there was there's
a there's great stories about those meetings. But this gy Kevin White, who probably was not I knew him well. He probably was not a James Brown fan, meaning he was not a guy he was politics all the time. It was not somebody who probably was was sitting at home listening to James Brown LPs. But he he was a quick study and he figured out the importance of James Brown, you know, the hardest working man in show business.
And James Brown put on a great concert and many people give him credit with a little bit to Kevin White and to Tom Atkins, who I also knew, who was the Boston City councilor at the time, to keeping the lid on a situation where Boston, which had had a lot of activity in the nineteen sixties civil rights activity and some sit ins, and there was some there were some you know, what we would call minor, you know, disturbances, but there was some disturbances, and it was it was
a very perilous moment in time and two people from a very different background. James Brown, you know, great, great entertainer, one of the greatest entertainers in the twentieth century, who you got to know very well, you know, and I think we want to emphasize your relationship with him. You were with him on many of his concerts. You you were pretty much designated by him as his as his
successor of his musical legacy. Don't don't be shy tell us about that, Tony, because I think that's a big important part of the story.
Well yeah, well, see when when I was ten years old, I jumped on the stage with James Brown, just like the kids did in Boston, but only the police didn't push us off because there was the Chitlin circuit. So my godfather's Marshall Thompson for the Shylights and my godmother's Martha Reis for Martin and Vandella. So I was on that Chitlin circuit just coming because kids in those days could you know, be in the tavern with their father
and their parents where they just consider the bar. So anyway, I did that with James Brown, and of course I lived in Chicago, and then the Jackson five would always come to Chicago and do the shows, and so I got to know Joseph and a lot of the Jackson guys. So I had, you know, good times with those guys. But you know, I got on there to do it.
And later on in the eighties, Don King contacted me and wanted to be a decoy for Michael in the eighties, so I was ended up being the top Michael Jackson entertain on for Winfrey and all that fast forward to James Brown. In nineteen ninety one, we met again with a guy to jail. So but Lewis went on a pay per view called the James Brown pay per View, which Lewis pay per view and dan Aykroy and all of the guys were there. So you know, from that point he said, I want you to stick with me
and come and learn. So you know, he flew me everywhere. I mean I had like three passports full of things that he did and the places that he brought me. So you know, from there, we did two movies together. One is called funk Blast. If you just go on to you can go on the YouTuber it's type of funk blast. Tony Wilson in the other words Beat the Devil BMW. Phil was one of the top actors in the world. Gary Omen and Danny Drago Claive owns. So it was a really keen good thing BMW Beat the Devil.
So you know, we, like I said, Big Time Entertainment in myself put this thing together. We like to thank the city of Boston for making James Brown say Boston Day April fifth, and we're proud of that. You know, we're still looking for things to do with we're providing with a big time entertainment. They dedicated providing platform for youth to express themselves, you know, the address social issues and
promote positive values, you know through these events. And so you know, he has this thing called Youth and Crisis, which are band the Brother Walk band has always done the Scoop and Hoop events. So he has already made an outlet for these kids so that they could be able to you know, deal with whatever they're doing with at home and then be able to be active outside, you know, the time with the use in Christ and the historical scoop and hooches every year. So this, James
Brown said, Boston is importance from Boston. Like I mentioned, I'm from Chicago. I'm not here to make money. This is free and this is why I'm doing it the way that I got here. Dan, I'm on tour with the Iceby brother If you type in Tony Wilson and the Iceley Brothers, you'll see we were at in Detroit.
And when we came right here in twenty seventeen and did the Wilber Theater, that's when I noticed it was game Brown's fifty of Anna Blue Street and I went to the city and at that time, I think Mayor Wu was city console. She actually came to our first show at Rothbury Community College.
Tell Marty Walsh was the mayor at that time. A great guy. He's now the executive director of the Players Association in the National Hockey League. So you need to get hockey tickets sometime. You got to get in touch with him. Let me give it one more time here because I'm coming up on the newscast at the bottom of the hour. April fifth, which is not this Friday night but Saturday night. It is a week from Saturday night, the first Saturday at April at the Prince Hall on
Washington Street in Dorchester. I think everyone knows where that is. No tickets needed, you just show up, and you got to show up a little early and get there and grab a seat and enjoy the show. Tony Wilson, so great to talk to you again, Huh, I said, so great to talk to you again.
Well, do I have another thirty seconds?
I'll give you about thirty go ahead.
Okay, yeah, because we got to bring out We got the celebrity performer, got Janelle Silgar's performer, Tony Lend, the legendary blues singer performing the OG's a performer. Uh with the artist, we have a Christina the performant Pretty Poison, and you know, we just have the foundation to be named later as one of our sponsors along with Urban Heat. Mark Harris is hosting it. So we have we even have Mark White. Kevin White's son is going to get
up to say something. But this whole thing is dedicated to the innocent Cobbage, Darrell Jones, Mack Hussin.
Do me a favorite, Do me one favorite, Tony, since we had you all tonight when you see Mark White on Saturday night, April fifth. Give him my best. He's a good friend. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years. Tell him. Dan Ray said, hello, and you're always welcome here. Tony Wilson, thank you so much. Thank young James Brown. Thanks, thanks Tony. Be well, be well,
stay safe. All right, when we get back right after the news at the bottom of the air, we're going to be talking with absolutely Nicole Davis, and we're going to talk about the new MBT, a MBTA rail extension down onto the South coast. We'll be back right We're probably gonna hear from Nicole and we'll be back with her in just a few minutes.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w Boston's News Radio.
Speaking about the aforementioned Nicole Davis. She joins us for a special stop by by Nicole. How are you?
Did I get here?
Oh? Hi?
How are you?
It's just amazing, almost in two places simultaneously. The magic of audio tape.
It's like you tuck the words right out of my mouth, the beautiful magic of radio. How are you, my friend?
I'm doing just great? Uh, And I know that you have some information on us on this the the Long Away It's South Coast commuter rail has finally begun service on Monday. Now, I don't think you were down there for all of the activities and the festivities, But this is really an extension of the MPTA. Is this going to help the MPTA, which is just going to dig the financial hole a little deeper that they've always found themselves. It's going to be great for people down to the
South Coast, that's for sure. Well.
Yeah, and the Tea seems to believe that by getting this commuter rail back up and running by the way for the first time in almost seventy years, this is offering commuter service to places like taunt and Fall River, New Bedford, you know, and they are believing that this is going to be eventually an economic boom. You're going to have more people using the system. So, yeah, there's a little bit of money you got to roll out first. But this is connecting a part of the state where
the economy is up and coming. It's building itself back and fishing and manufacturing area, and this is connecting people to jobs in the Boston area, maybe the biotech belt. Around one twenty eight all kinds of opportunities. And there's a huge history behind this too.
Well, I don't understand that I have not briefed myself, so I might ask you some questions here just out of curiosity that you may not be aware, might not know about. But you mentioned that that it's been seventy years. Why did any idea why it ever stopped?
Oh, let's go in the way back machine, Dan, we're going to talk about this. So yeah, picture it summer of nineteen fifty eight, and this is New Bedford, Fall River, tot and again we're talking about this. At the time they got to and from Boston on the train, there was train service on the South Coast through the New Haven Railroad's Old Colony line. So again it was just like the commuter rail and the old Colony Line would run right through the South Coast. Hop on the train
come to Boston. A big deal. But in the New York Times, I did some research on this because on my show New England Weekend, I did a segment on
this a few weeks ago. There is an article in the New York Times from nineteen fifty eight, the summer of that year saying Fall River and other cities at the time didn't want to keep contributing to a subsidy to keep the train running because the old Colony Railroad was bleeding cash on this part of the railroad, and so they reached out to the cities and said, look, we need your help to keep this going. The city said we can't afford this either, so in September they
cut the service. Done. Wow, And there has been no rail service between that part of the state and Boston since nineteen fifty eight. And of course, you know, trying to get to Boston from the South coast, you got to sit in traffic on the expressway, risk your life on twenty four. I mean, it's not an easy drive.
It's no fun.
No, it's not fun at all. So back in the early nineties this became.
A going back to that. If you go back to nineteen fifty eight, just to put it in some context, Yeah, Ted Williams was still playing for the Red Sox. Yeah, Kyle Yustreemsky had yet to make his major league debut.
Right, and I had yet to make my own debut.
Yeah, right, Well I was around, but I certainly wasn't studying the economic impact of the commuter rail or whatever, But I can remember that time. It was a time
when the world was at peace. Dwight Eisenhower was president, and I suspect that a lot of the old New England cities, of which New Bedford and Fall River were at the top of the heap, they had lost a lot of the mills and that they had they were they were cities in decline, and I'm sure that those communities at the time didn't have a lot of extra money to pony up to keep the rail line running.
And now here it is they have to put I assume these are all new track beds and all of that, that this is not something that that the track beds just stayed there. I mean, I'm sure over time those things had had had failed or or gone the way of all things. Any idea, what sort of an investment did again, I know you know this more than I been. How much did the MBTA have to expend to get it all built? At the rail extended, get the stages. I think there's six stations that have been built along
the lines. Have to been hundreds of millions of dollars at least I assume about a billion.
Not gonna lie. Yeah, I knew you were going to say something about that number, and it's true, because the thing is, this whole idea started back in the late or the early nineties. Bill Weld actually was one of the many who said, yeah, you know, let's do this, let's get back South Coast service. And the whole project has taken so long because there's been safety concerns, there's
been cost overruns. I don't know exactly how much of the track had to be replaced, but some of it was able to be used, some of it had to be built. There were you know, you had to build track over marshes and recreate areas to put the track, and it takes a long time. I am certainly not a rail expert, just an enthusiast, but yeah, it took a lot of money and a lot of time, and there were some times where a lot of people were saying,
is this ever going to happen? You know, we're put all this energy and all this money and all this time into this. But from what I saw, I have a few friends who were down there riding the trains on the first day, and my family lives on the South Coast and they're all super excited the trains have been running really well. For the most part, they're running pretty much. I think it's like ten or twelve trains
a day. It takes about seventy minutes to get to and from Boston, so it took a lot to get here. But there is a lot of excitement I think in New Bedford and Fall River for this access to the city of Boston that they hadn't seen so long.
Just to put it in context, when you think about the number of people along this line who will be accommodated and won't have to get in their cars to drive to Boston. They can just go in and come out in the same day. Even if it did cost a billion dollars, put it in the context the Big Dig cost twenty two billion dollars, so this was a fraction of the Big Dig. But it's going to serve a lot of people who for decades have had well
no ETA service and no real train service. So I think it's a It's a huge wind for the for the economy down there, and a lot of these cities are coming back. Fall Rivers, I think rebounding in New Bedford's rebounding. I think maybe the worst times for these cities maybe in their rear view mirror. Which is good for the entire South coast. Oh, it's good state everything.
Yeah, it benefits all of us to have, you know, flourishing economic areas in all parts of our state. And you know, if you want to go down to the South coast, taking some seafood at a restaurant in New Bedford, or maybe go to Battleship Cove for a day, it's a lot easier now just to hop on the train as opposed to again sitting in the car and dealing with the traffic. And imagine during the summer, it's going to be a lot easier to get down to that part of the state, to go to New Bedford, maybe
catch a ferry to the vineyard right there. It opens up opportunities.
Yeah. Yeah, when you look, when you really look at it, I mean the vineyard is just looking at the map here, it looks like about a very quick ferry ride, super quick over to the vineyard and you can get down there and see a part. There's a lot of people in Massachusetts, Nicole who probably have never been to New Bedford or Fall River. I would not have been except I went there as a reporter. When I was working in television and generally we're going down there for bad
news stories. I've never gone down there to spend a weekend or to go down and have dinner on a Saturday night. And it opens it opens everything up. It'd be really interesting to see how it works out for the for the whole South Coast area. And yeah, it's it's, it's I think it's I think it's a plus. And thanks so much for bailing us out here and joining us tonight and giving us a perspective that I learned a lot from you on this one, that is for sure.
I am happy to talk train history with you anytime. And yes, if I'm an enthusiast, I am not as much of an enthusiast as many people I know, but I do love public trans that I do love trains, and I I've already been talking with my family about taking a train trip down to the South Coast, So I'm excited about that.
Yeah. I had a cameraman who worked with me at or I must say now cinematographer who worked at me with me at two four for many years, got named Eddie Dukes. And Eddie loved trains. I mean he would he would get on a train. That's how he spent his vacations and love trains. I've taken the train to New York a couple of times, and it's a lot easier than driving getting right into Penn Station. People should
should try trains. And I think someday when I when I have a little more time, I'm going to spend some time riding trains across the country.
I would love to do that.
You have the country from a different perspective. Normally we're on airplanes flying to the West coast. I'd like to see the see the country, you know, at at eye level, and I'd like to be doing be doing it on a train.
So what easier than driving when you have to take your eyes off the road. Maybe just get on the train instead. Do yourself a favor.
You got it. Nicole is always thank you so much. We still owe each other a phone call.
I know, I know we'll talk, so I promise.
Thanks Nicole. All right, Nicole Davis, who just does a great job here on news at WBZ period and we're delighted to have her working with us at night. When we come back, we're going to talk about the first robot assisted live liver transplant, and it happened right here in the Greater Boston area. So we will will have all that for you, and then we'll get to our
talk portions. And we have a woman coming on, Jill Kornetski, who is a Harvard in Brandei's graduate and she is one of the very few Western women living in Kabul, Afghanistan. She's home here for a little R and R and she's she has got an an amazing project out there called Homestead Afghanistan and the Taliban I've actually have allowed her to be there. This would be a great hour coming up after the nine o'clock news, and we have a great guest coming up right after the break, Doctor
Martin Dibb. Will be back on Nightside in just a couple of minutes.
Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Or you may have seen the story that Beth Israel Hospital performs its first robot assisted live liver transplant with us as doctor Martin Dibb. He's a surgeon who was involved in the procedure results as the director of Beth Israel's Living liver Transplant transplant program. Welcome doctor Martin Dibb to Nightside, how are.
You very good? Thank you so much for your interest and support.
Well, yeah, explain to me the phrase living living liver transplant program. Obviously there, I am smart enough to understand that that people can actually donate a load of the liver. So is that what we're talking about here. It's not like a cadaver and the liver is harvested or explain the difference to me and my audience, if you'd be so kind.
That's exactly right. So patients that are waiting for a liver transplant, maybe patients that have liver disease or liver cancer, and the solution and long term best treatment would be a liver transplant. The problem we have in the country and many other countries is that we don't have enough donors to be able to do all the liver transant so patients can wait for a long time on the list. And so living donor liver transient is an alternative to waiting for somebody to die to be able to get
a whole organ. And instead of that, you know, patients can ask for the family members or friends that may be able to donate half of the liver. So just like in kidney yeah, I'm sorry.
No, no, no, So for the donor in that situation, they surrender half of their liver or they volunteer to give half of their liver. I assume there has to be all sorts of compatibility between the donor and the recipient. But what impact is there on the individual who surrenders half of their liver or donates half of their liver. Does their liver or what is left of their liver, does that regenerate itself or do they live their life with half a liver.
No, that's exactly right. So the liver has this amazing capacity. No other organ has to regenerate. So what happens is that if we take half of the liver of a donor and we give it to the recipient, that half of the liver that stays in the donor regenerates up to one hundred percent of what it was within six weeks. And then the half of the liver that we implant on the recipient also regenerates up to one hundred percent
of what the donor's liver was within six weeks. So we're able to achieve, you know, two whole livers out of one which is something that we know very much about and we try to take advantage of it to be able to transport more people and with healthy livers.
How long has that capability been in use? I assume that there was a point in time time where liver transplants first appeared. I remember when I think there was some controversy when the great Yankee baseball player Mickey Mantle was able to get a liver transplant late in his life. Uh, and there was a lot of uh controversy about it because Mickey had spent a lot of I guess what you call liver abuse as a young man, and people were upset about that. So how long have how long?
When when was the first liver transplant? I just want to put this in some sort of context. How long have has the whole process of a full liver transplant from a cadaver to to someone who was in need? When when did that first one happen? Approximately?
Yeah, So it was doctor Starzl who did the first liver transplants, and uh, this is back in the in the sixties seventies, but it was definitely standard of care starting in the eighties, and now living donor river transplants has been getting more and more force and we have been able to do this in a safe manner for the donors to be able to save more lives, be able to get good long term outcomes for the past twenty years.
For the past twenty years. So therefore we have some statistical analysis, which do the people who are the donors I know that their liver regenerates itself within six months. Have there been any studies done as to whether or not that either impacts their long the donors longevity either positively or negatively.
Yes, So we take the safety of the donor very seriously. So we have internet national registries of living donations, and in fact, the mortality of the donors is something that we have been tracking for a long time and internationally is you know, the potential mortality of a living donor is estimated as less than zero point one percent, so one out of a thousand, which is still something that we take very seriously and we make sure that we
minimize all the risks of the donor. But for the most part, the vast majority of donors are able to go home within five to seven days and they get a full regeneration of the liver within six weeks and go back to the regular activities.
The longevity of life, and again, I know it's impossible to predict that, but I'm just is there any disparity between the life longevity of liver donors and those who never donate a portion of the liver. Has there been any study ever done on that or all?
So, we do know from cancer surgery of the liver that patients that had half of the liver removed they live with a normal life expectancy. Since we have been doing living donors for the most part the past twenty thirty years, we don't know what's going to happen at forty years, but we pretty much know from the from all the experience of liver surgery that once they get a full regeneration, they live as anyone else with a regenerated liver and with a normal life expectancy.
That's great, well, doctor, It's amazing what you and your colleagues in medicine do for all of us, and it gives all of us great hope. I just want I wanted to say thank you for you doing what you do. I do a talk show and I was a TV reporter and all I've done is talk you work with your mind and with your hands, not only to save lives, but to benefit so many people during your career. I've known who was a heart surgeon and he did I think it was twelve thousand heart operations, and so I
stand in hor of you and your colleagues. I just wanted to say.
That thank you. We really appreciate you say it like if it's not, but just getting the word out is just really important. And you being interested in us showing people what we can do and be able to people that are waiting for a long time for an organ translant, for them to know that we can do living donner liver transplant. It's really important to be honest, like we have the privilege of having this job, but the real
heroes here are the donors. Not anyone would you know you would have a surgery that they don't need to be able to save the life of their family member, and these are very special individuals.
Absolutely well, doctor, I'd love to have you back, and if we can ever do anything to spread the word you talk to the folks there at the hospital and we're standing by at your service. Thank you so much for watching you.
I did want to you know mention about the robotic part. I think this is very exciting because we were able to do the surgery of the donor minimally invasive, with small incisions and using the latest technology, which is the robotic surgery. Basically we're able to have those donors to get to recover way quicker and get back to their regular life.
So what I'd like to do, doctor, I would so focused on the procedure and the transplant procedure. How about if you have I'll have my producer get in touch with your public relations person and we'll have you back maybe two or three weeks from now, and we'll focus exclusively on the robotic aspect. Would that work?
Leading would love?
Okay, we will do we will We will do it again in the not too not too long down the road. Thank you very much, doctor Martin Dibb of Beth Israel's Living Liver Transplant Program. Thanks again. Doctor. When we get back right after the nine o'clock news is going to talk about another person who is living a very interesting life, the founder of Homestead Afghanistan, a woman from Massachusetts, Jill Kornetsky. What a story coming back on Night Side