I Had a Kidney Transplant Performed by My Temple Colleagues. Today I Consider Them My Extended Family.

Julian Harmon, a Perioperative Services Assistant at Temple University Hospital-Main Campus, spent the afternoon of January 6, 2023 cleaning Operating Room 11. Three and a half hours later, he was in OR 3—but this time, as a patient.

That’s because, while he was still in OR 11, Harmon had received a life-changing call. He would be getting a kidney, and the transplant would be performed as soon as possible—and right here at Temple.

“When I got the call, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” says Harmon. While he had been on the waiting list for a kidney since 2018, and had never lost hope that he would receive a transplant, he hadn’t expected that he would be operated on at Temple—or by his colleagues.

“When we saw Julian’s name,  Serban Constantinescu, MD, PhD, Temple University Hospital Chief of Transplant Neurology,  said, ‘He works right here!’” recalls Kenneth Chavin, MD, MBA, PhD, FACS, Director of the Abdominal Organ Transplant Program.

Harmon will never forget what happened next. “Dr. Constantinescu asked if I was still at work, and I told him that I was,” he says. “He told me, ‘Stay right here. We have a kidney for you. I’m on my way up to get you.’”

Extraordinary Treatment with a Trusted Team

While every transplant is extraordinary, Harmon’s story stands out: not only because he’s a member of our Temple community, but because he works in the ORs where transplants are performed. “It’s a tremendous privilege to be able to give an organ to someone who’s serving transplant patients right along with us,” Dr. Chavin says.

For Harmon, the experience was surreal—especially because he hadn’t mentioned his condition to his colleagues. Knowing that his colleagues were the ones performing his transplant meant there was an “extra level of trust”—and that translated into a successful surgery. “Everything went really well,” says Harmon. “When I was in recovery, a lot of my coworkers came up to check on me. That meant a lot, because I consider them my extended family.”

A Second Chance at Life–With A Lot More Energy

Thanks to those colleagues, Harmon’s recovery went off without a hitch—and he feels like he has “a second chance at life.” “Nowadays, I have a lot of energy,” he reports. “I have a bounce in my step.”

In fact, Harmon is doing so well that, on April 3, he was able to return to work. To hear him tell it, seeing his coworkers has been the best reward. “Everyone has been coming up to me, giving me hugs, and asking me how I’m doing,” he says. “It just feels great."