Living Kidney Donation

Posts Tagged ‘organ donation’

Unfortunately I could not make the meeting but was told afterwards I had been given an award for my work in promoting living kidney donation. I am so honoured to have received this award and totally took me by surprise when I was told.

I have met some truly wonderful people along the way – donors, potential donors, recipients, medical staff and everyone that is connected with living donation.

I still get very excited when potential donors contact me and so proud and honoured to be able to be there for them. When I hear that they have donated I cannot help but shed a tear of pure joy and happiness that someone has given part of themselves to help save another’s life.

If anyone is considering donating a kidney, either to someone they know, or to a total stranger – I am here for you. I found my donation process emotionally lonely as only someone who has donated can truly know how we feel inside 🙂 ….. to be able to share feeling with someone who “understands”, or just ask questions about the donation process, can be hugely helpful and I am here for anyone who wants to make contact. You can use the “contact” link at the top of the page to privately make contact if you wish 🙂

Again, I am soooo chuffed to get this award. I was not able to make the meeting but will be presented with it in the near future. All I could say when I was told was to keep repeating the word “wow” 🙂 🙂

Daily Mail reports:
The 1,000th transplant involving living kidney swap donors will take place this week.

The NHS runs a sharing scheme where people can donate a kidney in return for one for their friend or family member in need.

The scheme was set up in 2007 because people on the kidney transplant list had friends and family who wanted to donate their organ but were not a good match by blood group or tissue.

Now, if a patient enters the sharing scheme with their friend or family member, the pair could be matched with another couple in the scheme so that each recipient receives a kidney from the other’s friend or family member.

To read more click HERE

Worth a thought ……One  of the richest and most powerful men in Brazil, Thane Chiquinho Scarpa, made waves when he announced plans to bury his million-dollar Bentley, so he could drive around his afterlife in style. He received lots of media attention, mostly negative and was severely criticized for the extravagant gesture and wasting of a precious commodity. Why wouldn’t he donate the car to charity? How out of touch with reality is this guy? He still went ahead with the ceremony.

Moments before lowering the car in the ground prepared for the burial of his Bentley, he declared that he wouldn’t bury his car and then revealed his genuine motive for the drama: Just to create awareness for organ donation.

“People condemn me because I wanted to bury a million dollar Bentley, in fact most people bury something a lot more valuable than my car,” Scarpa said during a speech at the ceremony. “They bury hearts, livers, lungs, eyes, kidneys. This is absurd. So many people waiting for a transplant and you bury your healthy organs that could save so many lives!”

Will an opt-out system law work for England?

Interesting as I have always cited Spain as being a classic example of success with an opt out scheme. They are, after all, the World’s leaders in organ transplant numbers.

Reading this article sounds like had they got the infrastructure in place before the opt out came into play, they may not have needed the opt out. Just my interpretation. I wonder … does  England have as good an infrastructure as Spain? I know some is being put in place, but will it be good enough.

To quote from the article:

Spain is often cited as having the world’s highest nationwide transplant rates and they have an opt-out law. But, upon careful examination, their success is based on other factors. Spain’s law was enacted in 1979, but there was no measurable impact on transplant rates until after 1989, when a strong national organization was established, and significant resources were committed to provide support for highly trained intensive care physicians and nurses in transplant centers. Rafael Matesanz, the director of the Spanish programme since 1989, attributes Spain’s higher organ donation rate to the practice of these highly qualified physicians and nurses who always have a conversation with donors’ families to secure their approval before proceeding with organ removal. [4] While Spain has a legal opt-out system, it functions as an opt-in system, because the family is routinely asked for permission. Wales shifted to an opt-out law in 2015, but the number of organ donations has not increased, over the past two years.

To read the rest of the article click on this link: Will an opt-out organtransplant law work – BMJ

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Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face, or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses, and all prejudice against my fellow man.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

— Robert N. Test

Don’t take your organs with you – Sign the Register
and save a life !

NHS Organ Donation Register

Very interesting article on the  BBC News website

The NHS has released figures revealing that 457 people died in England last year while waiting for an organ transplant.

Doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) and politicians alike have called for an opt-out system to be adopted in England, where people’s consent to donate their organs after their death is presumed unless they have explicitly said otherwise.

This system is currently in force in Wales and in a number of other countries throughout Europe.

In a recent Parliamentary debate on organ donation, Labour MP Dan Jarvis said: “England must now move to an opt-out system. The evidence is clear – hundreds of people a year are paying a price of us not doing so.”

But there is a lack of evidence to support this claim.

Presumed consent

In Wales, where an opt-out system was introduced in December 2015, there has actually been a small dip in the number of deceased donors, from 64 in 2015-16 to 61 in 2016-17. This resulted in a drop in organ transplants from 214 to 187 respectively.

This is not to say the opt-out scheme is having a negative effect – some fluctuation is to be expected – but so far, despite the claims, we don’t have any evidence that it is having a positive effect.

The BMA says it believes that over time such a scheme would lead to an increase in organ donation.

The Welsh government is in the process of evaluating the scheme and plans to publish a report by the end of this year.

One concern raised by Dr Margaret McCartney, a GP, in a paper for the British Medical Journal is that the Wales model of organ donation creates a group of non-donors who did not exist before.

In the English system there are two groups of people: those who have opted in and registered their wish to be a donor, and those who have done nothing whose families will be asked to decide.

In Wales there are now effectively three groups of people: those who have opted in and so registered their wish to be a donor; those who have done nothing for whom it is assumed they are happy to donate their organs, but it is still ultimately for their family to decide; and a third group who have opted out and so expressly registered their wish not to be a donor.

As it currently stands, 6% of the Welsh population has opted out of organ donation. This is a group of people who in an opt-in system were still potential donors, depending on their families’ wishes – they may not have ended up donating organs, but we just don’t know.

Spanish system

There is correlation between countries having opt-out schemes and having a higher number of organ donors.

But the countries which have the most donors per head combined the introduction of their opt-out schemes with other changes, like better infrastructure, more funding for transplant programmes and more staff working to identify and build relationships with potential donors before their death.

Spain is often touted as an opt-out scheme success story.

So-called “presumed consent” legislation was passed in 1979 but donor rates only began to go up 10 years later when a new national transplant organisation was founded which co-ordinates the whole donation and transplantation process.

The legislation is also not strictly enforced since families are always consulted and have the final say.

However, opt-out schemes don’t always translate to increased organ donor rates. In Sweden, for example, such a scheme has been in force since 1996 and it remains one of the lowest-ranked countries for organ donation in Europe. Luxembourg and Bulgaria also have opt-out systems and low rates of organ donation.
Declining rates

In France and Brazil, variations on a “presumed consent” system actually led to a decline in the rate of organ donation.

Another difficulty in assessing whether opt-in or opt-out schemes are driving different countries’ donation rates is that these schemes take different forms across the globe.

In both Spain and Wales, families of potential organ donors are always given the chance to refuse. But this is not universal – Austria and Singapore both have “hard opt-out” systems where those who have not opted out are presumed to have consented to organ donation regardless of their families’ wishes.

And there are other differences, for example in Israel a priority incentive scheme means those who have agreed to donate their own or a deceased family member’s organs are given priority on transplant lists should they themselves need an organ in the future.

In “hard opt-out” systems there were increases in the organ donor rate of up to 25%.

Original article found here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41199918

Organs from 505 registered donors could not be made available for transplant in the last five years because of objections from relatives.

BBC 5 live found that almost a third of families blocked organ donation because they felt the process took “too long”.

The law states that consent lies with the deceased, but in practice, relatives’ wishes are always respected.

The NHS wants to reduce the number of “overrides” by encouraging prospective donors to talk to their relatives.

In England, NHS figures showed that 457 people died last year whilst waiting for an organ transplant.

To read the rest of the article please click on this link from the BBC  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41671600

Every patient waiting on a kidney transplant in Scotland is to be sent an information pack telling them how to get a living donor in a bid to reduce the current waiting list.

At present there are more than 400 people on the transplant list, facing an average wait of up to three years for a kidney from a deceased donor.

This latest move by the Scottish Government is part of a national drive to increase awareness of the possibility of donating a kidney to someone in need of a transplant, whilst still alive, either to a loved one or a stranger.

Over the last ten years, more than 500 people in Scotland have become living kidney donors, with figures highlighting 86 people donated in 2016-17 alone. The information pack has been designed to inform patients of the different routes to living donation and reinforce that a successful kidney transplant from a living donor is the best treatment option for those waiting, as the kidney tends to be healthier. It features the perspectives of donors, recipients and various clinical specialists working to ensure each transplant is as successful as possible.

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Interesting idea …. read more about it here  Living Donor Scheme

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From the Guardian by an anonymous donor.

“Why I donated one of my kidneys to a stranger – it wasn’t a difficult choice”

Non-directed altruistic kidney donation. An unlovely term that means giving one of your kidneys to a stranger. I’d always known this was a thing but I’d thought it was a bit weird, a bit excessive, like donating an arm. Why not just stick to blood donation?

I’d last come across the idea in Larissa MacFarquhar’s 2015 book Strangers Drowning which had the alarming subtitle “Voyages to the Brink of Moral Extremity”. It’s about ultra do-gooders who make normal people feel uncomfortable or worse. Which may be part of why they do it.

MacFarquhar’s subjects include people whose sense of the world’s suffering leads them to give all their possessions away, live like vagrants, move to impossibly dangerous parts of the world. The help they provide for the poor seems questionable, but there is no doubt about the harm they do to themselves and those around them. Among these extremists are altruistic kidney donors. Many people, she says, “particularly doctors” (she’s writing about US doctors) find this donation “bizarre even repellent”. The brink of moral extremity did not sound like a place I wanted to go.

In October of last year I was in the car with my wife and we were listening to a podcast in which a speaker used kidney donation as an example of a contract that can’t be enforced. Almost irrelevantly he said people’s queasiness about the subject isn’t really rational: we don’t need two kidneys, the operation is safe and the benefit to the recipient huge. I immediately thought: if that’s true, it sounds like a good idea.
Would you give your kidney to a complete stranger?

Read more here —-
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/20/why-i-decided-to-donate-one-of-my-kidneys-to-a-stranger

Altruistic kidney donations:

1st April – 31st March in each year

• 2007-8   =  6 donations
• 2008-9   = 15 donations
• 2009-10 = 15 donations
• 2010-11  = 28 donation
• 2011-12  = 34 donations
• 2012-13  = 76 donations

Since 1st April 2013 there have been 30 altruistic donations which is fantastic news.

In the UK 1 in 3 kidney donations are from a live donor. On average the kidney from a live donor can last twice as long as one from a deceased person. Also the living donor has had so many health checks to make sure they and the kidney are in best possible condition.

Giving the gift of life whether after you die or before is probably the best thing you will ever do for anyone.

Please at least make sure you sign the donor register AND equally as important tell your next of kin. Too many organs are lost because next of kin veto their loved ones wishes.

What if you needed a kidney or other organ one day? Would you accept one from a deceased person? Of course you would – so why not also offer one. One day it might be your loved one that needs an organ and if noone ever signed the register ….they would die.

Upon your death you can save up to 9 peoples lives and help many more.

What an amazing legacy to leave behind for your loved ones to get comfort from.

Christmas time is just about upon us. The time of year when “giving” not only gives pleasure but we receive pleasure also when we give.

Have you considered giving the best present ever to someone – a kidney? Okay you won’t be able to do it in time for Christmas but you can start the giving process this Christmas/New Year by seriously considering giving one of your kidneys to a stranger – or even family or friend that you know needs one.

Look at the links on the top left of this page under “Become a Donor”. Read through them as it gives my pesonal account of my own donation. Step by step; test by test I say it as it was. It covers the operation and my recovery in hospital after and my recovery at home.  Read some of the links going across the top of the page for other information.

When I donated my kidney I didn’t think too much about how would I feel about the actual giving of the kidney. I knew I would feel happy I had been able to help someone but it went far deeper than that. I was quite surprised to feel a wonderful deep sense of contentment in my life knowing I had made such a huge difference to someone (and their family).   If I had another spare kidney I would not hesitate to give it to someone else.

I can’t think of a much greater gift to give someone than a second chance at life. You are also giving them back to their family as the family also suffers when a loved one is so ill.

Being on dialysis is not a picnic.  It does not replace the kidney. Dialysis is a form of Life Support. That is all.

With dialysis comes many problems. Not everyone takes to it BUT they have to as that is all that is available if they want to stay alive. That is – unless they get a kidney transplant!

So – we are a nation of givers. It is human nature to help people where we can. Read this website including comments people have given about their own donations or those waiting for a kidney. Look deep inside you – could you help save someone by giving them one of your kidneys.  Believe me, we do not need two. If we did then live kidney donation would not be allowed.  I don’t even know I only have one kidney. My life has not changed at all. Well actually it has. It has changed because donating my kidney has made me more aware of the vulnerabilities of our own bodies and it has made me take extra better care of  myself. I don’t have to take any medications though because of only having one kidney. Nothing in my life has changed except I watch what I eat a bit more. That is out of choice, not necessity.

Please consider giving the best gift of all.

God Bless
With Love to you all

Di
xxxx

Are you on the Organ Donor Register?

If so – thank you!! So many lives could be saved. What a fabulous legacy to leave behind. 

Did you know though, that no matter the fact you have signed the Organ Donor Register, the final word about donating will be with your next of kin and/or family.  Although the transplant team has the right to veto next of kin wishes, they generally do not.

So please ….. If you want to save some lives you must tell your next of kin and your family. Make sure they understand how important this is for you. That however upsetting it may seem at the time, they need to agree with your dying wish to save someone else.

I know someone who, after their loved one’s death, refused to allow the organs to be used, even though their loved one had signed the register. It came as a shock to them to find this out. A couple of days later, they  bitterly regretted their decision to refuse, but by then it was too late.

So please …. sign the Organ Donor Register  AND discuss your wishes with next of kin/family, make it clear this is something you really do want to do.

There is no guarantee that our organs will be able to be used anyway when we die. But at least by signing the Organ Donor Register we have offered.  Another reason why I am pleased I decided to donate a kidney while I was alive. At least I know I have helped one person and hopefully after my death I can help many more.

If you do decide you would like to find out more about living donation, then please read the links on the left of this page, under the heading of “become a donor”. Those links should answer many questions about living kidney donation and, who knows, it may even inspire someone to donate.

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Following several emails asking why I have stopped the evaluation process I just want to say it didn’t stop, I just stopped posting about it back in October as it was important to keep the confidentiality of recipient and donor.  I will post again after several months have passed when I will describe the rest of the evaluation and the donation – in the meantime please scroll down to the bottom of the home page of this blog to read the evaluation process from the start.  
EDIT: I took up posting again and you will find the full account. Links on the left or go to home page and scroll to the bottom to read from the start.
There are also plenty of good (I hope) links and pages on this blog to offer information regarding kidney donation.

If anyone is considering becoming a living donor and would like any information from a donors perspective then please get in contact with me via the contact page or just post a comment and I will get back to you.

Anyone wanting to donate, either non-directed or to a known person and would like some support from someone who has donated then please contact me via the contact form.