what are the requirements to give a kidney?

Today, living organ donation is a viable pick for many transplant patients, yet the number of people waiting for a transplant far exceeds the number of donors. There are many benefits for both the donor and the recipient, such every bit improved health and meliorate quality of life.

Go a Living Kidney Donor

Make a difference in someone's life by becoming a live kidney donor, learn more about how to apply and the living kidney donation process.

• Apply

  Consummate an online candidate profile.

• Download Brochure

  Learn most the living kidney donation process and what to wait.

Benefits of Living Donation

There are many benefits to becoming a living donor. Ane of the most obvious benefits is that you lot can save a life, or drastically improve the quality of life for the recipient. Long-term survival is markedly improved among patients who receive a donor kidney compared with patients who remain on dialysis. When a recipient has a living donor, the wait time for transplant is shorter and the transplant tin be scheduled. This allows for donations to accept place when the recipient is in good health and when it is convenient for both the donor and the recipient, such every bit summertime holiday or winter suspension.

Live organs that are transplanted concluding longer than cadaveric organs, and live organs begin to function more quickly than cadaveric donations. This helps ease the process for the recipient, and frees up a cadaveric kidney for another recipient.

Occasionally in life in that location are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can but be articulated by the inaudible linguistic communication of the eye.

- Pamela Paulk, kidney donor

Types of Living Donation

There are two main types of living kidney donation: directed and non-directed.

• 

  Directed donation occurs when a donor and recipient know each other. The donor and recipient may or may non be related. In the by, for best results, donors and recipients needed to take matching blood types and the recipient'southward body needed to be unsensitized. If a recipient is not sensitized, it ways that the recipient's antibodies should not assault blood and tissue from the donor, leading to organ rejection.

  However, donors and recipients do not take to be an exact friction match. The Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Eye developed a method, called plasmapheresis, that allows for a "non-matching" donor to notwithstanding provide a kidney to a recipient. Through our Incompatible Kidney Transplantation Program (InKTP) and our Highly Sensitized Patient Protocol, more options are available for not-matching, directed donors and recipients.

  Another directed donation option is to participate in a kidney swap, or exchange. Through this blazon of donation, a donor and recipient may trade kidneys with another donor/recipient pair. For example, if there were two donor/recipient sets, A and B, Donor A's kidney would become to Recipient B, while Donor B's kidney would go to Recipient A. When multiple donor/recipient pairs are used, this blazon of matching is called a Paired Kidney Exchange.

• Non-directed donors, or altruistic donors, are individuals who choose to donate a kidney to an unknown recipient. This kind of donation has the potential to start a domino effect of kidney donations.

• 

  The criteria for live donation of a kidney:

  • Must be in practiced physical and mental health
  • Must be at least xviii years one-time
  • Must take a torso mass alphabetize (BMI) that is less than 35

  Must be complimentary from the following:

  • Uncontrolled high claret pressure in certain individuals
  • Diabetes
  • Cancer
  • Hepatitis
  • Organ diseases
  • Infectious diseases

  Become a living donor

Kidney Donor Protections

Donors who undergo kidney donation surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital will qualify for the following support and protections through the National Kidney Registry:

• Lost wage reimbursement up to $1,500 per week for up to six weeks while they recover from the donation surgery
• Travel and lodging reimbursement upward to $3,000 in expenses for themselves and a caregiver
• Donation life insurance with a $500,000 principal sum, roofing a period of 365 days post-surgery
• Donation inability insurance with a $1,500 maximum weekly benefit coverage for up to 365 days afterward surgery subject to the donor'due south last 12 months of earnings and a thirty-solar day waiting catamenia
• Fiscal protection for complications that ensures donors are never responsible to pay for a post-surgical complication that is a direct result of their kidney donation
• Legal representation should a donor'south employment, wellness or life insurance be negatively afflicted by living donation
• Donor Connect the option for every donor candidate to speak with a living kidney donor who can answer questions, offering insights, and provide education based on their ain kidney donation feel

More than Facts

Living donors as well need a strong support system to rely on for emotional and physical needs during recovery.

The donation of any organ by a living person must be completely voluntary. Donors should be free from whatever pressure or guilt associated with the donation and cannot be paid for their donation. In 1984, the U.S. Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act, which made it illegal to buy or sell organs.

What to Await as a Living Donor

Equally with any surgery, information technology is besides of import to be aware of the risks associated with kidney donation. Your team can even connect yous to a donor mentor – someone who has done what you are about to do and tin share their personal experience with you.

• The evaluation helps determine if, every bit the donor, you lot match the recipient. In the offset phase of evaluation, you'll undergo tissue typing and lab screenings. Blood and tissue typing checks to run across if you and your recipient are compatible, and how well the kidney will be accepted by the recipient.

  Comprehensive lab testing may include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Blood test
  • Urine exam
  • Pap smear / gynecological exam
  • Colonoscopy (if over age l)
  • Cancer screening
  • Antibody screen

  If these lab results are satisfactory, you'll next meet with transplant physicians to discuss the process and its risks. The physicians and surgeons will review your results and will require additional testing, such as x-rays, electrocardiograms, or radiologic testing.

  This testing will including a full day of appointments and diagnostic testing. During this time, y'all will besides meet with our psychologist, Donor Advocate, and nurse coordinator. Further testing may as well exist required.

  One time the work-upwardly is completed, your example will be presented to the multi-disciplinary transplant squad. This squad includes surgeons, nephrologists, psychologists, donor advocates, and nurse coordinators. They represent y'all and make decisions that are in your best interest regarding the transplant.

  Information technology is important to note that, equally a donor, y'all will have a unlike transplant team from your recipient. Your team cares for yous exclusively. It is a common fright that donors are viewed as a kidney and not as a person; however, at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Middle, organ donors are given the same considerations and respect as all of our patients.

  Note: At any time during the evaluation process, up until the moment of surgery, you are entitled to change your mind virtually the donation. This decision is fabricated with your physicians and is kept completely confidential.

• If you are approved for the donation afterward all of the tests are completed, the surgery will be scheduled. The surgery is usually scheduled four to vi weeks in advance. Typically, a living kidney transplant donor spends two days in the hospital, and volition have an boosted four to six weeks of recovery time. Donors who are from out of boondocks should programme on spending an extra week in boondocks after they discharged from the infirmary.

  During recovery, you volition experience some pain and discomfort. This should be hands relieved with either a prescribed medication or over-the-counter pain relievers. For two weeks, you should avoid driving, and you should avoid picking upward anything that weighs more than than x pounds for half-dozen weeks following surgery. Yous are encouraged to walk several times a day. If you have children, you may demand initial assist in caring for them.

  Depending on the type of work you do, you may be able to return to your task as soon equally ii or as long every bit eight weeks after surgery. There will be follow-up tests to monitor your health.

• As with whatsoever surgery, live kidney donation has its risks:

  • Anesthesia, and possible allergic reaction to anesthesia
  • Pain and discomfort
  • Infection
  • Bleeding and blood loss which requires transfusion
  • Blood clots
  • Fever
  • Nausea
  • Urinary tract infection
  • Pneumonia
  • Injury to surrounding tissue and other organs
  • Scarring
  • Death

  A Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon led a study to monitor long-term survival among alive kidney donors and plant that long-term mortality was like or lower for live kidney donors than their counterparts in the general public.

• Donors should not have non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Tylenol is the just over the counter pain reliever that should be used post donation.
  Download this alphabetical list of mutual NSAIDS to avert. This list is non spread-out.

• Equally a living donor, you should exist enlightened of the financial aspects of donation.
  Covered past Recipient'south Insurance:

  • Screening tests
  • Surgery
  • Some follow-upwards care

  Non Covered by Recipient's Insurance:

  • Time off of work
  • Travel expenses
  • Expenses for handling of unrelated conditions (For instance, if a screening test shows cancerous cells, treatment for this condition would not be covered by the recipient'south insurance).

  Donors should check with their ain insurance prior to donation. Although unlikely, the deed of donating a kidney could perchance affect future insurance coverage. We recommend that you have insurance prior to donating a kidney.

  For travel expenses and other funds, the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) offers a grant to donors. There are income qualifications that both the donor and the recipient must come across in guild for the donor to be eligible.

  If you are interested in becoming a living kidney donor, telephone call 410-614-9345.

Patient Resource Tips for Your Journey to Find a Living Kidney Donor

Learn how you lot can detect a living kidney donor by downloading our guide in either English or Spanish.

Patient Stories Pamela Paulk's Kidney Donation Story

Learn how Pamela Paulk, the former president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, helped make a departure in the life of a co-worker through kidney donation.

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Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/transplant/programs/kidney/living_donors/

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