My friend Dave sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal this week about kidney donation. Instead of the typical donor/recipient story, this compelling tale told of three sets of donor/recipients and how a medical team matched kidneys between the six people. They are calling this complex procedure a kidney swap or paired kidney donation.
Paired kidney donations occur when someone wants to donate a kidney to a loved one but is not a medical match. The incompatible pair is matched with another pair facing the same situation and the kidneys are swapped.
Wow. As if it isn’t hard enough to find a person willing to give up an organ to a loved one, with this procedure folks are giving up organs to people they don’t know. Granted, they are doing this to ensure their loved one ends up with an organ simultaneously. But wow – this puts a whole different spin on things.
I remember reading in some of the literature from this summer that some folks opt to give an organ to the “next person” on the organ donation waiting list; and in turn this donation bumps their loved one up to the top of the list when a compatible organ becomes available. I guess this is a similar idea, it is just a little more connected and personal this way.
What I find the most interesting is that there seems to be a lot of debate going on in the medical community about this type of donation. There are concerns over donors backing out(or feeling obligated to continue) and how to best organize a universal matching system.
Personally, I just feel so amazingly lucky that Anna and I were found to be compatible matches. I am glad I don’t have to make that choice of joining into a paired kidney donation in order to offer Anna a new kidney. I’m a very black and white kind of gal – adding more donors/recipients to the mix certainly makes things more gray.
Regardless, this is a super interesting story and I encourage folks to take a read. Just the logistics of coordinating a cross-country organ transplant are remarkable.
AND – as a side note on Dave: If you are ever in need of a media or presentation trainer – talk to Dave. I’ve worked with many, many media trainers over the years and can say with absolute certainty that Dave is by far the very best. That includes those hacks we flew up from SF before the tech bust that cost three times as much $$. Dave also has a charming accent, which is nice too.
Wow. As if it isn’t hard enough to find a person willing to give up an organ to a loved one, with this procedure folks are giving up organs to people they don’t know. Granted, they are doing this to ensure their loved one ends up with an organ simultaneously. But wow – this puts a whole different spin on things.
I remember reading in some of the literature from this summer that some folks opt to give an organ to the “next person” on the organ donation waiting list; and in turn this donation bumps their loved one up to the top of the list when a compatible organ becomes available. I guess this is a similar idea, it is just a little more connected and personal this way.
What I find the most interesting is that there seems to be a lot of debate going on in the medical community about this type of donation. There are concerns over donors backing out(or feeling obligated to continue) and how to best organize a universal matching system.
Personally, I just feel so amazingly lucky that Anna and I were found to be compatible matches. I am glad I don’t have to make that choice of joining into a paired kidney donation in order to offer Anna a new kidney. I’m a very black and white kind of gal – adding more donors/recipients to the mix certainly makes things more gray.
Regardless, this is a super interesting story and I encourage folks to take a read. Just the logistics of coordinating a cross-country organ transplant are remarkable.
AND – as a side note on Dave: If you are ever in need of a media or presentation trainer – talk to Dave. I’ve worked with many, many media trainers over the years and can say with absolute certainty that Dave is by far the very best. That includes those hacks we flew up from SF before the tech bust that cost three times as much $$. Dave also has a charming accent, which is nice too.
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