Kidney donor and recipient doing fine

[okarol]

Kidney donor and recipient doing fine

RICHARD GOULD/HERALD STAFF WRITER

JACKSON - Just 19 days after her friend's selfless act vaulted her to the top of the kidney transplant list, Pat Ziesman lay in her hospital bed as her new kidney began to function.

That was Nov. 24. Pat is currently recovering at the VCU Medical Center in Richmond.

What pushed Pat to the top of the recipient list was her friend, Lynda Geanes' decision to donate a kidney to her. But, Lynda's kidney wasn't a match for Pat. That's why Lynda turned to the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and its Living / Deceased Donor Exchange Program.

The center's program allows incompatible living donors to donate a kidney to an unknown but compatible recipient in exchange for their friend or loved one being moved to the top of their blood group on the donor waiting list.

Once at the top of the list most transplant candidates face a wait of one to six months. Pat was fortunate and got her transplant much faster than expected.

Donor kidneys come in two varieties - those that come from living donors and those recovered from people that have died. Of the two living donor kidneys tend to function better and last longer because they are usually only outside the body for 20 minutes or so while cadaver kidneys can be out of the body for up to 30 hours according to VCU Medical Center's Transplant Coordinator Maureen Bell.

While the individual who received Lynda's kidney started feeling the benefit right away but Pat remained in intensive care for a couple of days after her transplant because it took her new kidney some time to begin to function properly.

Last Thursday Lynda went to the VCU Medical Center's Transplant Center for a post-op check up and the doctors told her that she's doing fine. While Lynda was there she took the time to visit Pat and saw that she's doing fine and reports that her kidney is now functioning at 100 percent.

In an e-mail Lynda said, “I personally feel if I died right now, I have done something important to help another human, in fact two of them.”

For more information on organ donation contact LifeNet Health at 1 (800) 847-7831 or go online at www.donatelife.net or www.unos.org.

http://www.rrdailyherald.com/articles/2007/12/04/news/news.txt

[WBMW]

Can you do this anywhere in the U.S.  Or is this specific to Virginia?

[okarol]

Every transplant center has different procedures and programs so it's best to call around and ask.

[goofynina]

I have a friend, Frances, who was going to do the swapping method with her nephew (he was the donor) and unfortunately, when the time came, her PRA's were too high so they had to cancel the transplant, now, they have called her back and told her that they are ready to begin the transplant process BUT they dont want to use her nephew but her daughter instead, apparently her daughter had been tested but was not a match with Frances BUT she is a match with this other person they are going to swap with.  I tell ya, it is so true when they say the Lord works in mysterious ways 

[KT0930]

I asked my coordinator about seven months ago about paired donation because my brother said he'd be willing to do it ("whatever will get you a kidney" were his words). The coordinator never called back...I'm thinking I need to call him.

[xtrememoosetrax]

Can you do this anywhere in the U.S.  Or is this specific to Virginia?

My recipient-to-be friend and I specifically inquired about this, and were told No, in both New Mexico and North Carolina.  Apparently, there are ethical concerns having to do with vaulting someone to the top of the cadaver list; it is felt that it would be unfair to the others waiting on the list. 

[xtrememoosetrax]

I asked my coordinator about seven months ago about paired donation because my brother said he'd be willing to do it ("whatever will get you a kidney" were his words). The coordinator never called back...I'm thinking I need to call him.

Is your brother an incompatible blood type?  If so, you may want to check out the Alliance for Paired Donation, which matches up incompatible donor-recipient pairs.  Here is their web site:  http://www.paireddonation.org.  They explain the whole thing a lot better than I can.

Quite a few medical centers across the country have signed up with the Alliance; they have a list on the web site so you can check to see if your center is affiliated.  It involves no money or fees.  In fact, it is a clinical trial, not in the sense of the treatment being experimental, but rather because they are planning to track the donors for two years postop (I just signed the informed consent the other day). Two years isn't much, but it's more follow-up than has been done in any systematic way on living donors up until now, so that's important.  My friend and I are really trying to get the word out on this, thinking that the more incompatible pairs sign up, the better the chances of finding matches.