What Every Patient Needs to Know - UMC

Living DonationSection 3Living donation offers another choice fortransplant candidates. In 2010 there were 28,662organ transplants performed in the U.S. Morethan 6,500 of these were living donor transplants.With more than 112,000 people waiting fortransplants in the United States as of 2011, thedemand for organs far exceeds the supply. Livingdonation extends the supply of organs.HistoryNeed more information?Visit www.transplantliving.org(click on Living Donation).• The first successful living-donor transplantwas done between 23-year-old identical twinsin 1954.• Living donor kidney transplants did notbecome routine until the development ofmodern immunosuppressive medications toprevent rejection.• The first successful living-donor livertransplant was performed in 1989.• The first successful living-donor lungtransplant was performed in 1990.Facts about Living DonationWho can be a Living DonorParents, children, husbands, wives, friends,co-workers—even total strangers—can beliving-donor candidates.Organs a Living Donor may Give• one kidney• segment of the liver• lobe of a lung• portion of the pancreas• portion of the intestineDonor Relationship withTransplant CandidateDirected Donation• related: healthy blood relatives of thetransplant candidate.• unrelated: healthy people who are not bloodrelatives of the candidate. They may or maynot have a social connection to thetransplant candidate.Non-Directed DonationNon-directed living donors are not related to orknown by the recipient, but donate purely fromselfless motives. This type of donation is alsocalled anonymous, altruistic, altruistic stranger,and stranger-to-stranger living donation.I am a living donor from Rhode Island.In 2002 my good friend, Bonnie,confided over coffee that she had beensick with kidney disease for a long time.She needed a kidney. Her relativeswere not viable donors. I privatelythought about her predicament and afew days later told Bonnie that I wouldgive it a shot.– Directed unrelated living donor22