A few transplant questions

[-Lady Noir-]

Hi..

My finace's parents are both up to become donors. His mother is O blood type [same as Mike] but his father is A. We were initially told that his father couldn't be a donor for Mike because of this, but they have still continued all the rest of the tests..
Is it possible for an A blood type to donate to an O?

Also, his father is living in Australia, and we are in New Zealand.. can they do a transplant or do they both have to be in the same country?

I would ask the transplant co-ordinator but we can never get hold of her. Infact, we have never even spoken to her before! 

[cariad]

In terms of Mike's father donating, yes they can do it, but it should be a last resort. Donating across incompatible blood groups is complicated, much harder on the recipient (similar to desensitization) and does not seem to be as successful long term. Perhaps they are considering Mike's father for a list exchange, paired exchange, or any of those other trades that are done.

I'm sure New Zealand has ways of making this work with an out-of-country donor. They would be crazy to let this opportunity to get a citizen off dialysis pass by. I would go with the mother as donor if she is willing and in good enough health.

Hope this helps! Good luck to you and Mike.

[-Lady Noir-]

Hey thank-you for that information cariad 

His mother, says she is willing.. but it's pretty obvious she feels she has to donate. It's a very confusing situation, she seems like she doesn't really want to. I just wish she would be honest.

[natnnnat]

Maybe she really wants to donate, but she is honestly showing her fear of the operation.  I'd be sh***g myself.  And cranky.

[-Lady Noir-]

Could totally be so.
I would understand if she was scared. Heck, i would be too. She told us she had to have 6 months off doing the tests for the transplant cause she had to have an operation.. we have heard nothing of it since 

[kellyt]

They could be testing him in case y'all are interested in "paired donation".     Good Luck!

[RichardMEL]

Aus/NZ are pretty much one country these days anyway so I don't think that will be a big deal, apart from where the actual transplant is done and getting the donor in etc.

Indeed the transplant/donor registry is known as the Australia New Zealand Organ Donor Registry: http://www.anzdata.org.au/

[-Lady Noir-]

Thanks Rich 

What is paired donation?

[RichardMEL]

Paired Donation is something we're looking at for me.

Basically it's where you swap kidneys between incompatable donors.

So say I have a donor, but he's not compatable with me, and you have a donor, but they're not compatable with you, but your donor would match me, and my donor would match you, then they do both transplants and basically swap the organs.

It's only just started here, after a trial for a while in Western Australia. My neph(who I am seeing tomorrow with my incompatable brother) is quite keen on a paired donation I think. He's definitely more keen on that than ABO - I think he doesn't quite trust the technology (a bit old school).

Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_transplantation#Paired_exchange