If someone you loved needed blood, and your blood type was a perfect match, you wouldn’t hesitate to offer some of your own. The truth is, life-and-death situations are happening every day around the world, and thousands of people are waiting for things much rarer than blood — like kidneys. At last count, it was estimated that around 80,000 people in the United States alone were waiting on the kidney transplant list for someone to donate a kidney so they could have a second chance at life. Now, consider for a moment that it is your child, spouse, sibling, or parent who needs a kidney. Would you donate yours as easily as you would your blood? Even more alarming is that tens of thousands of other people are afflicted with life-threatening kidney disorders that haven’t even been diagnosed yet. Raising awareness and learning how to become a kidney donor are two important steps that could make you a catalyst in saving someone’s life — or even your own!
Understanding Kidney Donation: The Basics
Obviously, donating a kidney is far more involved than donating blood. However, a recent study from the University of Minnesota concluded that people who donate a kidney live just as long as they would have otherwise. Apparently, donating a kidney — assuming your other kidney functions properly — has no long-term effect on your health. Yet, the impact it has on the recipient is truly life-or-death.
Each year, around 350,000 people are at the end stages of kidney disease, meaning their lives are tied to dialysis machines. And each year, there are approximately 90,000 new cases of kidney disease diagnosed. The problem is that there are only around 13,000 donated kidneys each year, meaning the odds of receiving one are slim. For those waiting for a perfect match, life can feel like a frustrating race against time. Many of those on the waiting list are children with chronic kidney disease.
Essentially, there are two ways to donate a kidney: living donation and deceased donation.
The first option is to become a living donor. A living kidney donor agrees to give away one of their own kidneys because the human body only requires one to function properly — provided the donor is healthy. If you choose to become a living kidney donor, you would undergo various tests and be required to take medications before the donation. Post-surgery, you would recover quickly and feel just like you did before the operation.
Kidney donation is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 50 with no medical or psychological issues. Most often, living donors are family members of the person in need, as the chance of being a match is greater within families. In this case, donors can choose exactly to whom their kidney will go. If you wish to help a stranger, you can do that too. Doctors will search databases to compare your genetic markers with those of people on the organ donation waiting list, in order to find a suitable match. Tissue tests will be performed to reduce the chance of your donated kidney being rejected.
You can also donate a kidney by signing up as a deceased donor. In some states, this choice is made when you renew your driver’s license. Additionally, family members can decide after your death to donate your healthy organs. In this case, your organs are carefully screened and assessed after your death so that they can be allocated quickly to someone in need. The United Network for Organ Sharing database maintains all relevant information for patients in the United States waiting for an organ. The challenge then becomes matching the organ to a recipient in a timely manner, without compromising the health of the organ.
There is also a type of donation called “heart-beating” donation, which occurs when someone who is clinically brain-dead but still alive is considered for organ donation. Organs donated while the heart is still beating are generally considered more viable than those from a non-heart-beating donor.
Considering deceased kidney donation, it’s clear that choosing to become a donor after death is something everyone should think about. Organ transplants have become increasingly successful over the last decade, and they can literally make the difference between life and death. Even if you don’t want to be a living donor, choosing to allow someone to benefit from your body after you pass is a noble, commendable, and selfless act. You never know — the person you end up saving could be a family member, or someone else’s mother or father.
Each day in the United States alone, around 17-20 people die waiting for a kidney donor. If you’re interested in becoming a kidney donor, the best place to start is the National Kidney Foundation. You can reach them at www.kidney.org. There, you can learn about various events that help people get diagnosed with kidney disease, as well as programs to match donors and recipients, ensuring that those afflicted with kidney disorders can continue to live fulfilling lives. Be sure to read some of the stories of individuals whose lives were saved through the generous acts of strangers and families.
Each year, approximately 14,000 kidney transplants are performed in the United States, and just under 2,000 in Canada. When you consider how many people in the United States and Canada are waiting for a kidney transplant to survive, donating a kidney seems like an easy decision. Sure, it can be frightening. However, with all the research and case studies that show minimal risks to donors, it’s an option that everyone should seriously consider.
