Donating a kidneyJan. 23, 2007 12:00 AM
As many as 3,500 of the approximately 70,000 patients nationwide waiting for a kidney transplant have friends or family members who are willing to donate but who are not compatible medically, says surgeon Robert Montgomery of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
If there were a national registry specifically for paired kidney donations, about half of those patients could be matched and receive a transplant now, he says.
At Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, 18 donor-recipient pairs have expressed an interest in the swaps, a spokeswoman says.
Montgomery, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Johns Hopkins, was part of the team that performed the first reported paired kidney exchange in the United States.
He and associates say they are ready to start a registry for paired exchanges as soon as a potential legal issue is resolved. The issue, possibly created unintentionally, stems from a 1984 law that prohibits selling and buying organs.
No money is paid to donors, Montgomery says. But because they participate in a kidney swap so a loved one can receive something of value, some fear the exchange might be interpreted as illegal.
URL
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/0123organs0123boxB.htmlSource: Johns Hopkins University.
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