I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on February 04, 2009, 10:36:59 AM
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A site that matches people for organ donations, not dates
Canton nonprofit links those who need organ transplants with potential donors
Posted Feb 04, 2009 @ 01:02 PM
CANTON —
In 2004, Paul Dooley went to his doctor, Jeremiah Lowney, with an idea. Dooley’s father had been sick and in need of a kidney transplant, but the man’s doctor had told him the situation was hopeless – he would die before he reached the top of the organ transplant waiting list.
Dooley had started an Internet job board called CollegeJobBoard.com, and wondered if the same concept could be applied to organ donations. If a Web site could match employers and job seekers, then it could also match people in need of organ transplants with potential donors.
Together, he and Lowney created MatchingDonors.com, a site where patients can post profiles with their stories and potential donors can seek potential recipients. From there, donor and patient must contact a transplant center that arranges for testing to determine if they are a match.
Since the site launched in 2004, 92 transplants have taken place as a result of matches made on it. There are currently 5,574 potential donors listed on the site and 387 people seeking organs. Live organ donors most commonly donate one of their kidneys, but they can also donate portions of their liver, lungs or pancreas.
The site charges $595 for a lifetime membership to post a patient profile. The Canton-based organization is a nonprofit, and Lowney said that all fees are used for travel and hotel expenses for donors. Ultimately, he said he would like to reimburse donors for wages lost during the time they must take off work. Dooley said that neither he nor Lowney takes a salary, and there is one full-time paid employee in their office.
Lowney, who is 42 and lives in Milton, practices internal medicine with his father in Hyde Park.
MatchingDonors.com has been featured by several national news outlets and has been the subject of controversy because of the ethical issues surrounding organ donation.
Do you see any negative consequences of patients meeting organ donors online?
I think it’s great, as long as both parties know what they’re doing and as long as all the information is out there. We’re the infancy stage of a transplant. We’re a critically important part of it, but we’re the infancy stage, we’re at the beginning. People meet and then the process is taken over by the transplant center. And that’s really important, because it’s not just anybody meeting online to go somewhere and get a transplant.
There’s a whole process – rules, regulations – that the transplant center has in place that people have to follow. ... And if a transplant center decides that this transplant isn’t something they are willing to do for whatever reason – other than they don’t like the way they met – then we don’t have any problem with that. It’s totally up to the transplant center. There are still some hospitals that won’t take patients that meet online. But Mass. General, Beth Israel Deaconess, the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins – all of them are with us and understand that what we’re doing is actually very helpful and a good thing.
Do you worry that the organs are not necessarily going to the sickest people?
I don’t worry about that, because everyone that comes off the list, regardless of whether they’re the sickest – and you know, you can’t even find out who’s on the top of the list if you wanted to. It’s so random, and it changes so often, that you don’t even know who’s on the top of the list in this country.
Every time you take somebody off that list, other people are moving up. It doesn’t matter where they fall. If that was the case, if we would say, well you know, the sickest person isn’t getting the kidney, then what do you say about a brother that donates to his sister? Is the sister the sickest person on the list? That brother, if they’re willing to donate, they should donate to the sickest person on the list? We’re not going to make people do that. If you want to donate to your sister, you’re going to donate to your sister.
Are there problems with people trying to get money for their organs?
For the most part, 99 percent of the people don’t get involved in that. And the other thing about that is, if I had five people that contacted me, and four of them said, “I really want to help you, I think that maybe I can be a donor” and then out of the five people, one of them said, “I want to help you, but I want $10,000.” What are you going to do as a patient? I’ve got four people, why am I even going to deal with that guy? And that’s the good thing about it, is there’s so many people that offer to help.
Julie Onufrak may be reached at jonufrak@ledger.com.
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/state/x1452244273/A-site-that-matches-people-for-organ-donations-not-dates
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That is a wonderful site. I can't even begin to understand why one wouldn't think so. There is no problem what so ever with charging a fee, how many people out there would pay for a kidney if given the chance? Thats a really awsome idea.
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Some transplant centers refuse to do transplants for patients who find donors on MatchingDonors, so be sure you know what the rules are at your hospital before you get involved. :twocents;
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This site is amazing. The co-creator, Paul Dooley is just a wonderful person. Rob is on here and we have definitely had some interest. We have 1 person who is testing for Rob right now, we are down to the last stages of testing, here's hoping it goes well. You can call and actually talk to Paul, he will help you in any way.
There are a couple of downsides, you might have strangers calling you at home if you post your number or be contacted to buy an organ from someone. That pisses me off, but I just forward on the email to the site administrator and they take care of it. The major downside is, some hospitals won't let you use a donor from this site. The original hospital Rob was with was Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston. The head of surgery things it's wrong for people to post for a donor. He feels those on Unos get an unfair advantage. We were so pissed off, there was no changing his mind. So, we switched to Mass General Hospital and we are much happier.
What I really like about this site is it gives a person a chance and the co-creator, Paul Dooley, will call you back personally to help you in any way he can. I can't say anything negative about him!
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Well so far my dad won't accept a living doner, and if he ever gets to that point I am not sure if we will need to go that rout. We have a lot of willing family members so far. So we will see. But I just think that is a wonderful site.
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I remember a few months back someone from this website or someone promoting it came here.
He was kinda shoed away.
From what i gather many think the site is a scam or corrupt or just not on the up and up.
I dont know enough about it to comment other then what i saw.
The site may be alot bettter if you didnt have to pay for it?
Or pay after you find a match.
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How about a site that matches organ donors and a date with a lovely woman? ::)
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How about a site that matches organ donors and a date with a lovely woman? ::)
Hey - now that's a novel idea on how to increase the pool of living donors! :clap;
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I hear they are looking for organ donors at
Ashleymadison.com Yes plenty of pretty ladies to choose from as well.
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They just called me today! I am a bit wary of this site as I believe it is a scam.
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MatchingDonors is not a scam, it may be controversial, but it is connecting people. It's a site where you pay a fee to be listed and people read your profile and decide if the want to donate a kidney to you.
I have heard that they have been calling patients recently (no one seems to know where they get the patients contact info) and offering a payment plan of approx. $25 per month, rather than the lump sum of $595 (I think) to include them on the site.
There have been numerous news stories about successful transplants made through a match made on MatchingDonors. Here's a few.
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=11637.0 Stranger’s kidney donation shows blessings found in giving and receiving
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=11277.0 Blogging Mothers Find a Kidney For Teen on Dialysis
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=7067.0 One donated kidney, not one regret
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=7872.0 Alabama man gives kidney to stranger
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=6060.0 Match for life
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One more comment. A guy I know named Paul who found a recipient through MatchingDonors and it's a really
great story - CBS news covered it - here's the video if you're interested
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=1834840n