Organ transplant swaps gain ground

Organ transplant swaps gain ground

Posted: Jun 07, 2013 1:00 PM PDT
Updated: Jun 07, 2013 4:48 PM PDT
By Kyle Midura - bio | email

BURLINGTON, Vt. -

"I had basically eight years of fighting it -- on and off. I was sick and then well -- sick and well," said Matt Giroux.

At the age of ten the Plattsburgh native received a kidney transplant from his mom.
Two decades later he found himself in need again. But medically, finding a second match is much tougher. "I was told nine out of ten people in the area would not be able to donate to me," Giroux said.

"I always thought that I would kind of like to be the next donor," said Giroux's brother, Dan. Despite sharing many of the same genes, his brother didn't match. But Dan's good kidney did match the needs of others across the country. "My brother was able to help other people while other people were helping me," Giroux said.

With the help of computer software, doctors created matches out of 28 non-matches. Dan's kidney went to a patient elsewhere in the country, and in return, his brother received a new kidney from a similarly-situated stranger. A little more than a month later, every link in the chain received a living, healthy donation.

"It's an amazing amount of people," said Dr. Antonio Di Carlo, Chief of Transplant Surgery at Fletch Allen Health Care. He says using the National Kidney Registry to create long chains like this is becoming more common and much faster and that the process translates into better results for patients as well. "No kidney works better, faster or longer than a living donor kidney for a bunch of reasons," he said.

The system also creates shorter wait times for those on the deceased donor list, by decreasing demand and locating pairings for the hardest-to-match patients -- like Giroux. His wait likely would have lasted years rather than the five weeks it took to arrange all the procedures. "It feels pretty good. I'm just really hoping everybody does well," he said

Dan's donation allowed nine others to get involved in the healing circle. He never guessed a gift planned for his brother would help so many.

Doctors say because of donations are from living people, recipients are less likely to need another transplant in the future. Fletcher Allen officials say they do about 30 to 50 of this kind of procedure a year.

http://www.wcax.com/story/22534009/organ-transplant-swaps-gaining-ground