Need for kidney donation high

Need for kidney donation high — and growing

BY STACEY SHEPARD, Californian staff writer
sshepard@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Jan 17 2009 12:00 PM

Last Updated: Saturday, Jan 17 2009 2:02 PM

More than 100,000 people — a new high — are waiting to receive an organ transplant in the United States, and nearly 78 percent need a kidney.

HOW TO HELP

• Sign up to be an organ donor. Afterward, make your family aware of your wishes.

• If interested in being a living donor, visit Transplantliving.org.
ORGAN TRANSPLANT — By the numbers

100,500
Number of people on the national transplant waiting list as of Jan. 16.

78
Percent waiting for a kidney

6,679
People who died waiting for an organ transplant in 2007.

67
Percent who died waiting for a kidney.

42
Percent increase in people waiting for a kidney since 2004. The percent waiting for other organs has either decreased or remained the same.

40
Percent of all kidney transplants in 2007 that came from living donors

Source: United Network for Organ Sharing
Photos:

Photo by Alex Horvath / The Californian

Californian Publisher Ginger Moorhouse, right, is detailing her experience becoming a kidney donor for her husband, John, left, on her blog, Kidney Chronicles.
Related Stories:

* Courtenay Edelhart: Organ donation saves not one life, but two

Blogs:

* Californian publisher shares her journey of becoming a donor on the blogs

Links:

* Californian publisher shares her journey becoming a donor

Driving up the need are high incidences of diabetes and high blood pressure, which can lead to kidney failure. Both are common in older people and brought on by obesity.

“The story of organ donation today is really one defined by shortage ... and kidneys will continue to be the overwhelming need,” said Bryan Stewart, spokesman for One Legacy, one of four organ procurement and coordination groups in the state.

Because kidneys can come from living donors, unlike a heart or lung, increasing the number of living donations is seen as the best hope next to boosting deceased organ donations to reducing waiting list deaths.

For the most part, living kidney donations come from a spouse, friend or family member identified as a match in blood type and other biological factors.

But what if you’re not a match?

New efforts in recent years have increased living donations by pairing mismatched individuals.

ORGAN SWAPS

Paired exchanges, as they’re called, are basically a kidney swap.

Wife 1 wants to donate to Husband 1, but his blood is type A and hers is B. In a paired exchange, they could be matched with another couple needing a transplant, where Wife 2 has blood type B and her husband A.

UCLA and other transplant centers work together on such exchanges. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains the transplant waiting list, is developing a registry to allow all transplant centers in the country to participate.

“It’s entirely possible that we’ll see 1,000 or 2,000 more living kidney donations a year,” said Joel Newman, a United Network spokesman.

Another emerging prospect is an altruistic chain, where a Good Samaritan donates a kidney to an unknown recipient with a mismatched donor. The recipient’s donor then donates to another incompatible pair and so on.

UCLA has been in a chain that started with an altruistic kidney donation six months ago and has resulted in 12 living donor kidney transplants, said Albin Gritsch, surgical director of the kidney transplant program at UCLA Medical Center.

“Theoretically, one person donating a kidney could set off a chain that could result in 100 people getting a kidney,” he said.

RISKS AND REWARDS

Donors are advised of the medical risks involved and must undergo rigorous health exams to ensure they’re healthy enough.

Removing a kidney has become relatively noninvasive but all surgeries carry risk, doctors warn. About 3 in 10,000 donors die during the organ donation procedure, according to Gritsch.

Dialysis is an option when a living donor isn’t. Someone with kidney failure could live many years on dialysis, but it’s costly and unpleasant.

Taft resident David Bosworth, a former Type 1 diabetic, was on dialysis for four years before receiving a transplant in January 2006 at age 36.

Living donation was not an option for him and his wife since he also needed a pancreas transplant, which can only come from a deceased donor.

Dialysis kept Bosworth alive but it sapped his energy and caused depression. Due to time off he needed for treatment and recovery, Bosworth had to leave the oil field job he’d held for more than 18 years.

“I was in the prime of my life, with kids in high schools and buying a house,” he said. “And I was hooked up to a machine all night and then during the day.”

His kidney and pancreas transplant changed it all. Bosworth still takes extreme care to stay healthy and protect the organs he’s received, but now enjoys “the freedom of being worry free.”

Since then, he’s broken his knee cap in a game of chase with his teenage son. He found a new job in the oil industry. And a few months ago, he and his wife, Emily, went on a cruise to Mexico — their first vacation in almost 10 years.

“When you’re sick, your life is all about decisions and how they will affect your life. It can feel miserable,” he said. “I’m living again.”

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/665373.html