Here's a news story from North Carolina, home of one of the patient-donor pairs in the U.S.-Denmark kidney exchange, organized by the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD).
Worldwide kidney transplant chain saves lives in Raleigh, Denmark, Colorado. by: Maggie Newland
"RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — When a Raleigh musician needed a kidney, a friend of a friend offered to donate hers. The offer led to a kidney transplant chain stretching from the Triangle all the way to Denmark.
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"Meanwhile, across the ocean, in Denmark, friends Peter Wichmann and Morton Berktoft were dealing with a similar issue. Wichmann wanted to donate his kidney to Berktoft, but they didn’t match either.
"Then something called a paired kidney exchange ended up helping all of them.
"“It’s actually a Nobel prize-winning algorithm,” explained Krista Sweeney with AKPD. “They put these pairs into our system… We’re able to identify the best matches for each pair.”
"In this case, Kovacic donated her kidney to someone in Colorado. Their loved one donated a kidney to Berktoft, who flew to the U.S. for the surgery along with Wichmann, who donated a kidney to Adamo.
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"Three months after the surgeries the donors and recipients are all doing well and got a chance to talk to each other in a virtual meeting.
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“Even though the paired exchange wasn’t our initial plan it worked out so great for six people,” said Kovacic. “And three people’s lives to be saved.”
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Earlier posts on Denmark-US exchange:
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