Your Secret Living Kidney Donor List

Not enough kidneys

There are 95,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list and most of them will die waiting for a kidney.

These are people in late-stage chronic kidney disease and many are on dialysis. Do you know anyone who is on dialysis or on the kidney transplant waiting list that needs a life-saving kidney transplant?

Who would you save by donating your kidney while you are alive?

“Most of us would make sacrifices for close friends and family members – people whom we love and trust and with whom we have long-standing relationships …” according to Abigail Marsh in her book The Fear Factor.

Have you ever considered giving your kidney to a relative such as a grandparent, parent, sibling or child? What about people you care about but are not related to like your spouse, close friend, or in-law?

Directed Living Kidney Donation

When you decide to donate your kidney to a specific person, it is called a “directed donation”. In 2019, there were almost 7,000 living kidney transplants. Over 80% of those were directed to a relative or someone the donor knew.

Your Secret List

Most of us don’t talk about a list of people we might be willing to donate our kidney to. Who is on your secret kidney donor list? Who would you donate a kidney to while alive?

And who would donate a kidney to you if you had kidney disease? Are you on anyone’s secret kidney donor list?

Consider This!

We all have a list of people we might consider donating a kidney to if needed. Today, think about who you love enough to put on your secret kidney donor list. Whose life might you consider saving if they had kidney disease?

Glenna Frey, APRN-CNS, is a nephrology nurse who donated her kidney in April 2017 to a stranger. She and daughter Amanda Frey co-founded Kidney Donor Conversations in 2018 to increase awareness of Living Kidney Donation.

Resources

Marsh, Abigail. 2017. The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, & Everyone In-Between. Basic Books, NY.

https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/view-data-reports/build-advanced/# Retrieved 2/17/2020

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net