One patient, a million backseat surgeons

I've got a feature in today's Washington Post about how patients involved in high profile, first-ever procedures deal with the raging media attention they receive. (The graphic to the right is from the Post Health section's awesome layout.) It's a great relief to see this story in print, because it's been on my mind for the last year. It was originally conceived and written when that partial face transplant was huge news in 2005, but for one reason or another, the face case wasn't in the news as much by the time I filed the story. The Post decided to wait until the next big case came along, so the story could run and seem tied to something specific. I don't think any of us expected it to take so long. For a while, I scanned the headlines looking for medical-first stories. Eventually, I gave up.

But while reading the newspaper on the toilet a few weeks ago, I spotted a piece about the first-ever five-way kidney swap at Johns Hopkins. It was perfect: newsworthy, and local to the Post. I flushed, washed my hands, and shot off an e-mail kindly suggesting it was time to run the story. They agreed. Some re-writing later, and here we are. It is, as always, a great delight to be in the Post, but it's also a thrill to finally put this baby to bed.

Posted by Jason Feifer at December 12, 2006 07:56 AM