Doctors perform kidney transplant on awake patient [Video]

Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago have performed a kidney transplant on a patient who was awake the whole time.

They say the technique used updated anesthesia methods which may now be used for more patients who would be considered too risky to go fully under, which is the standard now.

The patient, 28-year-old kidney disease patient John Nicholas, paves the way for more patients who are older and have more risks.

“There are a lot of people that have heart and lung disease that also need a kidney transplant, and that just increases the risk of general anesthesia even more,” Dr. Satish Nadig, Comprehensive Transplant Center director and chief of abdominal transplant surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago told Scripps News.

“There’s a lot of people out there [and] they’re very high risks for intubation, meaning getting a tube put into their throat to help them breathe. …