Living Kidney Donation

Posts Tagged ‘donating kidney risks’

It has been  some time since I posted re my final evaluation test, the CT Scan (October 2009). Following that I got HTA approval and I donated my kidney.  Here is an account of that and the operation and my recovery.  There is quite a lot to comment on so I will do it in separate posts. It may take a couple of days to fully post.

Independent Assessor Report and HTA (Human Tissue Authority) approval to donate my kidney.

My last and final evaluation test was the CT Scan in October 2009. That all went well and an appointment was made for me to see the Independent Assessor (IA). The IA is totally separate from the medical teams that have dealt with me, he acts as the HTA (Human Tissue Authority) representative and sends a report to the HTA for approval.
read more about the Independent Assessor Interview

It is important that anyone considering donating a kidney is aware of the risks involved. 

Firstly let me say that altruistic donation (the operation and recovery etc) is no different to someone donating to a loved one. Here are some statistics *.

In the UK between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009:

• 3,513 organ transplants were carried out, thanks to the generosity of 1,854 donors.
• 977 lives were saved in the UK through a heart, lung, liver or combined heart/lungs, liver/kidney, liver/pancreas, heart/kidney or liver/kidney/pancreas transplant.
• A total of 2,536 patients received a kidney, pancreas or combined kidney/pancreas transplant.
• A further 2,711 people had their sight restored through a cornea transplant.
• A record number of donors were living donors, 954 people donated a kidney or a segment of their liver or lung, representing more than half of all donors.
• The highest number of non-heartbeating donor transplants took place- 579 transplants, a 35% increase on 2007-2008.
• Living donor kidney transplants are increasing – 589 in 2005-2006, 690 in 2006-2007, 831 in 2007-2008 and 927 in 2008-2009 and now represent more than one in three of all kidney transplants.
• At the end of March 2009, 7,877 patients were listed as actively waiting for a transplant.
• Almost a million more people pledged to help others after their death by registering their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register, bringing the total at 31 March 2009 to 16,124,871

As you can see from the above, more than 1 in 3 kidney transplants are via living donors.  There may only have been a small amount of altruistic donors so far, but the law allowing that is only a couple or so years old.
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