What is a Living Donor

FACTS ABOUT LIVING DONOR KIDNEY DONATION

There’s two ways a person can be a LIVING DONOR.

1) As a Direct Donor. This is done by calling the Donor Coordinator to register to be cross-matched. (just a blood test) If found to be a match, a complete physical work-up would be given to determine if the potential donor is healthy enough to donate without any risk to their health or risk of rejection of the kidney for the recipient. You DO have to match your recipient’s blood type to do this.

2) By entering The National Kidney Registry (a Paired- Kidney Exchange where a the donor gives a kidney in return for a better match for the recipient.) You DO NOT have to match your recipients blood type to do this.

⦁ WE ARE BORN WITH AN EXTRA KIDNEY.  You only need one to live a full healthy life. After recovery, a living donor can return to their normal activities, with the exception of some contact sports to protect the remaining kidney from injury.

⦁ The average life of a kidney transplanted from a cadaver is 10 years. The average life of a kidney transplanted from a living donor is 25 years.

⦁ Being a Living Donor does not impact a woman’s ability to have a child.

⦁ All medical expenses for a living donor are paid by the recipient’s insurance.

⦁ There are assistance programs (American Transplant Foundation; National Living Donor Assistance Center are two) that will help with non-medical expenses such as lost wages, mortgage/rent, travel and lodging.

⦁ The majority of the living donor surgery is a laparoscopic procedure.

⦁ The Hospital stay is 1-2 days for the living donor

⦁ Recuperation for a living donor is generally 2- 6 weeks.

⦁ Life expectancy for a living donor is the same or better than the general population. This is due to 1) only extremely healthy people are chosen to be living donors; and 2) the act of giving the gift of life has a powerful positive impact, which leads to a healthier and longer life.

⦁ The risk for a living donor to have kidney failure later in life is no higher than the general population and the risk of complications is about 1%; lower than that of any general surgery.

⦁ A potential living donor can change their mind at ANY TIME during the process.

These are just some of the facts about LIVING DONOR KIDNEY DONATION. For more information visit:

www.kidneyregistry.org

www.livingdonorsonline.org

To receive information about being a LIVING DONOR for Becky (Rebecca Hillard), contact-

DONOR COORDINATOR, Jessica Enzwieler @513-585-1427