Kidney Transplant Chains: The Story of a Father and Daughter

My dad and Me, 2009

October 29, I will be donating one of my kidneys to a recipient in Virginia. A few hours later, my dad will receive a working kidney from a donor in Illinois. Through the miracle of paired donor exchange, thousands of patients in End Stage Renal Disease are able to receive a live kidney

As of last year, over 93,000 kidney patients were on the waiting list to receive a kidney. Approximately 2,000 patients are added to the waitlist each month. Average wait times to receive a cadaver kidney may be from three to ten years. In the US, approximately 6,000 people donate a living kidney per year.

For patients with ESRD and other medical issues, a transplant is the only way to avoid dialysis, a time-intensive procedure in which kidneys are filtered several times a week. Patients on dialysis risk infections and have a lower life expectancy than those who undergo transplant.

When my father was told he needed a kidney transplant to avoid dialysis, we got to work. I set up a Facebook page looking for donors. My brother started the fairly intensive screening process but was unable to donate. I was next at bat.

Essentially, living donors must be healthy, between the ages of 18 and 70, and have decided to donate on his or her own accord. Donors must not have elevated blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV, or Hepatitis-C, and, of course, healthy, viable kidneys. Donors undergo a psych eval to ensure the donor is not being coerced or pressured into donating. Following several extensive medical work ups, including CT Scans, blood work, and a stress test, the donor may or may not be cleared to donate.

The second piece of kidney donation is blood or tissue typing and crossmatch. Certain blood or tissue types may donate or receive kidneys from a pool of other types. For example, those with AB blood type are a universal recipient. Crossmatching checks blood types and other factors, such as Rh. O is the universal donor. For my dad, type B, he could only receive from a donor with O or B blood types. Neither my brother nor I had a compatible blood type with our father.

Since I could not donate directly to my father, we were added to several donor exchange networks. Transplant centers throughout the country place patients without donors or with incompatible donors and non-directed altruistic donors on this list. (An altruistic donor is someone with no connection to any of the recipients.)

Thankfully, in short time, we had a chain of three pairs through the computer generated match up. When one patient in the first chain fell through, we luckily were placed in a chain of two pairs.

So, around 2 pm on Tuesday afternoon, I will be wheeled into the operating room at UCLA to donate one of my kidneys through a laproscopic procedure. My kidney will be flown to Virginia where my receipient will undergo transplant surgery. A donor in Illinois will undergo surgery in the morning. That kidney will be flown to LA where my dad will undergo surgery.

Through the miracle of technology and the incredible teams at UCLA and other transplant centers, my dad and my recipient will have the opportunity to live full lives.

For more information:

NY Times article about a kidney transplant chain

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html?pagewanted=all

The Chain: A 2013 documentary short about altruistic donors at UCLA.
http://transplants.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=112