Sunday, December 25, 2011

Choices confronting live kidney donors

The choices confronting a live kidney donor aren't simple. Here's the story of a priest who wanted to be a non-directed donor to start a chain of many transplants, but decided to give to one of his parishioners instead. (One wonders if the two of them couldn't have been easily included in a chain...my guess is that this option wasn't proposed to them...)
Faith Matters: Thankful for his good health, Memphis priest willingly shares in 'act of gratitude'

"On Dec. 16, 2009, Father Val sat at his kitchen table and read a newspaper article about 13 patients who received new kidneys from donors they didn't know. It was the world's largest kidney exchange. "It's not like I'm doing anything courageous," one of the donors told The Associated Press. "If I don't donate, who will?"
...

". . . In the beginning of this process I knew that I wanted to donate a kidney and was very open to placing this donation on the National Kidney Registry for my kidney to be given to an undesignated recipient in need of a transplant. During the testing process, however, I realized that a Cathedral parishioner with a serious kidney illness might need a kidney donor."
...
". . . I knew that Ed already had a prospective kidney donor. I later learned that, during the medical tests, the prospective kidney donor found out that he was not a suitable candidate to donate a kidney. At the same time I learned how serious Ed's kidney failure is. Presently his kidneys are functioning only at 11%. As soon as I received word that I passed all the medical tests and am able to be a living kidney donor, I went to Ed and Jerri. Before that they had no idea that I was interested in being a living kidney donor. I then asked Ed if I could be his kidney donor."
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And here's the story of another donor who started a non-directed donor chain through the  Alliance for Paired Donation: The Miracle of Life: How One Woman Turned Tragedy into the Ultimate Gift

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