Exchange project: Say you wanted to donate a kidney to a relative, but were not a match. Would you donate your kidney to a stranger who could use it, in exchange for a kidney from one of their relatives that was a match to your kin?
Seems like a good idea, and such plans are being set up.
A new Living Donor Kidney Exchange Programme, launched earlier this month by the New York Organ Donor Network, will allow potential kidney donor-recipient pairs who are not suitable for reasons such as mismatched blood type to be matched with other willing donor-recipient pairs.
"What we're trying to really do is take advantage of the pool of willing living doors who want to donate to people they know but are physically, biologically incompatible," said Elaine Berg, president and chief executive of the New York Organ Donor Network.
"Rather than saying, 'Sorry you can't donate, goodbye," [ we can say] 'we may have this other option'," Ms Berg said.
Research has shown that in 90 per cent of cases, kidney transplants to unrelated recipients are still functioning one year after the surgery. Transplants performed as a result of the new exchange program will basically mirror (these) Ms Berg said.
Ms Berg's "personal motivation for pushing the programme forward" was the inquiries she had received from "very frustrated" individuals who were willing but unable to donate their kidney to a loved one.
In up to 35 per cent of cases, family members and friends, who are often the first to volunteer to donate an organ, are denied the opportunity to do so due to biological incompatibility, studies show. A person with type A blood, for example, is unable to receive an organ from an individual with type B blood and a person with type B blood is similarly unable to receive an organ from someone whose blood type is type A.
The new programme will address this problem by allowing a type A individual, who is willing but unable to donate an organ to a type B family member or friend, to donate his or her organ to a type A individual on the kidney transplant list. In turn, a type B willing donor who was unable to help his or her type A loved one will now be able to donate a kidney to the family member or friend of the type A donor. The two transplants would be performed simultaneously.