FYI-Donor's need kidney function test done before eval of transplant

[sassy]

GRRRRRRRRRR...................My son (27 years old) was going to me my donor. While he was getting his evaluations with all the Dr's. social worker's,etc he found out he only had 18% kidney function left  . Boy were we all shocked to find that out - he was pretty much devastated thinking that he would be giving his Mother a kidney and now he is going to be receiving one hopefully.

My outrage is with the Midwest Organ Transplant team where he went to initially give blood to see if he was a match.  I have been told their sole purpose is only to do blood type and cross match, and that they don't even check at that time to see if your kidney's are working efficiently.  Call me crazy, but if they had done this testing at the time of the initial blood draw, the eval process would not have gone any further and would have saved everyone a lot of time with appt's, workup's etc, not to mention the money (was told about $2,000 for each cross matching) that it takes each time they do the matching.

As is turns out, it was a blessing in disguise that he found out now before he got really sick because he has had no symptoms whats so ever.  Hopefully, in the very near future, he will be getting a kidney from his brother who is a 6 out 6 match for him.

Again, my advice to anyone giving a kidney is to have a kidney function test before all the evaluations start.   

My sister is going to try to donate to me now - she's a 4 out 6 match, but not getting my hopes up until I have a new kidney and its working.  There are so many things that can stop the process.


Edited: Corrected spelling in subject line - okarol/admin

[vandie]

I am so sorry you are going through all of this.

My transplant center does the initial cross match and the kidney function test is part of the donor work up.  I think that is normal course.

[okarol]

I know it makes sense to do the test, but they really don't expect a 27 year old to have reduced kidney function. We had a young woman donor who made it through all the evaluation, and the very last test was the ultrasound, which showed she had signs of medullary sponge kidney. She was 34 years old and no family history, so it was a shock to all of us. Even her kidney function test came back fine. Anyway, it's such a tough time and I am sorry for you and your son, although as you said, it's good he found out he needs treatment as well. Hope you find another donor soon.
{{HUGS}}