Living Donation

Living Donations

"Critical," "Shortage," "Waiting."

These are the words that are commonplace in the lexicon of organ donation.
In 2001, 6,082 people who died were organ donors - only 96 more than the previous year, according to national data released by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network in 2003. The average donor provides 3.6 organs.

On the other side of the ledger are more than 81,000 people in the United States who currently are waiting for organ transplants, according to the California Transplant Donor Network.

Clearly, the supply of organs does not meet the demand.

For some patients, hope lies in living donations, a growing trend since 1954 when the first successful living donor kidney transplant was performed at a Boston hospital. A living donation means the removal of whole organs or segments of organs that a volunteering donor can live without.

A living donation is handled by the medical center performing the transplant. The main advantage of this kind of surgery is that it eliminates the patient's need to be on the national waiting list for organ donations from people who die. The transplant also can be scheduled at a time convenient for the donor and the recipient, rather than being performed as an emergency operation.

In 2001 a turning point was achieved because, for the first time, there were more living donations than deceased donations, says Anne Paschke, spokesperson for the United Network for Organ Sharing. Today, almost 52 percent of kidney transplants are performed using living donors, and the procedure has expanded to liver, lung and pancreas transplants.

Living donors may also donate segments of their intestine, although this is rarely done.

The first living kidney transplant in Boston in 1954 involved identical twins Richard and Ronald Herrick. But today, parents, children, siblings, spouses, friends, and even strangers may donate their organs if they provide a match for the recipient, according to the OPTN.

Good Samaritans

Another facet of living donation is "Good Samaritan" donation. In these cases, a complete stranger will choose to be a living donor for someone they don't even know.

Usually, Good Samaritan donations involve kidneys, says Sharie Shipley, public relations director at Life Sharing Community Donation, an organ procurement organization in San Diego, CA. These donors must also undergo psychological evaluation, Shipley says.

"They need to understand that there is no fame or fortune and that they are doing it without an ulterior motive," Shipley says.

Two Good Samaritan kidney donations were recently done in San Diego. Shipley says these were firsts for the city.

People who choose to become a living donor face very conflicting emotions.

"We willingly become worse-or less-than we were before," Drew Limsky, a New York teacher, wrote in a June 2002 editorial in the Los Angeles Times. During the previous year, Limsky had donated a kidney to his mother, who was suffering from kidney disease.

"Live organ donation is a wonderful thing, but it's also a little gruesome, letting your body be used for spare parts," Limsky said.

Because of these issues, a psychological evaluation is one of the required tests for potential living donors.

The donor's medical history also is reviewed and physical examinations done.
Living donors must be physically fit and in good general health, according to OPTN. They must be free from diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Gender and race are not relevant, but living donors are usually between the ages of 18 and 60, according to OPTN.