Free webinars for those in need of a kidney transplant

The Living Kidney Donors Network (LKDN) is offering a series of free *webinars at multiple times on different dates, Monday, February 8th, Tuesday February 9th and again on Monday, February 15th. All webinars will start at 7:30 PM Central Time.

“Having Your Donor Find You” is presented by the Living Kidney Donors Network (LKDN).

Who should attend? This webinar is perfect for people that are in need of a kidney transplant and want to learn how to communicate their need to friends and family. If there is someone that wants to help you spread the word about your need, we call them Advocates, ask them to sign up for the webinar or have them attend with you.

For more information about the Webinar, or to register please go to the following:

http://livingkidneydonorsnetwork.org/webinars.html

*A webinar is a conference used to conduct live meetings, training, or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

New Computer Models Successfully Link Donors And Kidney Transplant Patients

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2009) — New computer models can now link strangers in a life-saving chain of kidney transplants, promising to increase the number of transplants and overcome obstacles posed by logistics or donors who renege, a team of researchers report in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Designed to optimize the "matching market" principles involved in kidney transplantation, donor registry software programs sift through thousands of pairs of recipients and their living donors, analyze participant characteristics, then construct an optimal chain of transplant pairs, report the co-authors, many of whom helped pioneer the creation of donor chains.

For the approximately 70,000 U.S. patients in need of a kidney transplant, the data-driven approach to transplantation pairings should shrink the rolls of patients on waiting lists.

The donor chains start with a single "altruistic" volunteer donor.

"The Good Samaritan who comes forward to donate a kidney serves as the catalyst for a series of donations in a much more efficient system," says Boston College Assoc. Prof. M. Utku Unver, a theoretical economist. "It is not an easy decision to give up a kidney to help a stranger. These advances may encourage more donors because they now know they can save many lives."

The approximately 4,000 living donor kidney transplantations that take place in America each year rest upon a fragile balance of donors and recipients engaged in a "matching market" where volunteers provide life-saving organs without monetary compensation, says Unver, who has been examining kidney exchange for five years.

The computer-generated chains provide a viable alternative to the relatively new strategy of paired donation, where organs are exchanged between two donor-recipient pairs during simultaneous surgeries.

Paired donations are prone to breakdowns because a willing donor is not a compatible match, a recipient is too far away or a donor backs out of the extremely personal transaction.

Unver and his fellow researchers highlight a chain of kidney transplantations that started with a 28-year-old Michigan man in July of 2007 and led to 10 transplantations coordinated during 8 months by two large paired-donation registries, the 25-state Alliance for Paired Donation and Incompatible Kidney Transplantation Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The transplantations took place at six medical centers in five states. Three kidneys from living donors were shipped – two using commercial flights – rather than requiring donors to travel to the recipient's hospital.

The computer models assign values to the characteristics of donors and recipients stored in massive databases. The programs then generate pairings based on with similar scores, imposing an order on these exchanges by overcoming issues that disrupt a market

"Economists have been looking at solving the 'mechanism design' problem of paired donations by using data to increase efficiency," says Unver, whose early work on these models with fellow BC economist Tayfun Sonmez led to the founding of the New England Program for Kidney Exchange. "As work progressed, people began to see this was a way of overcoming the problems involved with paired donations."

Paired kidney donation surgeries are performed simultaneously to reduce the possibility of a donor backing out once a friend or relative has received a kidney.

A donation chain allows for greater flexibility, since not all surgeries must take place at the same time in the same hospital.

The researchers conclude further that kidney donor chains could shorten wait times on lists of unmatched patients in line for deceased-donor organs. The scope of the databases can pair these patients with suitable living donors, who account for approximately one-third of the 14,000 kidney transplantations that take place annually in the U.S.

Unver was joined by co-authors Michael A. Rees, M.D., Jonathan E. Kopke, Ronald P. Pelletier, M.D., Dorry L. Segev, M.D., Matthew E. Rutter, M.D., Alfredo J. Fabrega, M.D., Jeffrey Rogers, M.D., Oleh G. Pankewycz, M.D., Janet Hiller, Alvin E. Roth, Tuomas Sandholm, and Robert A. Montgomery, M.D.

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Note: Visit the following organizations for info on matching donors:

U.S.
Matching Donors
Alliance For Paired Donation

Canada
Living Donor Paired Exchange Registry

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

AST Encourages Employers to Adopt Paid Leave Policies for Living Organ Donors via Awareness Campaign Effort

Press release posted on The Earth Times:

MT. LAUREL, N.J. - (Business Wire) The number of living organ donors can be increased if more employers offered paid leave to employees who act as live organ donors. That is the message of the American Society of Transplantation’s (AST) new outreach campaign, which is aimed at corporations, institutions and local/state governments.

“Living individuals who give a kidney or part of a liver to another person are heroes, and their stories are often told publicly. However, what goes unspoken is that potential living donors often cannot donate because of wages lost from work during recovery from surgery,” said Flavio Vincenti, MD, president of the AST.

Paid leave could also help ease the chronic shortage of organs in the U.S., where 3,700 new patients are added to the transplant waiting list each month and 18 die each day awaiting transplantation.

The new outreach campaign is in support of the AST’s Employee Leave and Organ Donation Program, which provides assistance and education to employers in establishing a paid leave program for living organ donation.

Living Donors: An Important Part of Organ Donation

Living donors are responsible for the organs in approximately 50% of kidney transplants, 10% of liver transplants and 2% of lung transplants. There were 6,306 live organ donations in 2007.

The recovery period for organ and tissue donation surgery varies by individual but is generally one week for bone marrow, four weeks for kidney and up to 12 weeks for liver and lung.

AST Program Aims to Boost Paid-Leave Participation

Currently, at least 40 institutions and corporations have paid leave policies for live donors. Twenty-nine states also have policies and many have related legislation pending. The federal government has had a paid leave policy since 1999.

“Paid leave for employees who give the gift of an organ to another person is gaining momentum in the U.S., but the participation of private industry and major institutions is needed to help it grow,” said Dr. Vincenti.

The outreach campaign includes “The Employee Leave and Organ Donation Program,” a new DVD from the AST, which describes how paid employee leave can help with the ongoing organ shortage. The AST will be using the DVD as part of its national outreach to employers and human resource professionals in 2008.

The AST also asks that members of its society, which include physicians, nurses, researchers and pharmacists, lobby their employers to adopt paid leave programs.

The AST provides technical assistance to employers who want to establish a paid leave policy for organ donors. The assistance includes: a sample human resources policy statement; a booklet that describes organ donation and related employee needs; copies of existing state and federal policies; and a news release template to announce the program.

About AST

The American Society of Transplantation is an international organization of transplant professionals dedicated to advancing the field of transplantation through the promotion of research, education, advocacy, and organ donation to improve patient care. The Society comprises more than 2,700 transplant physicians, surgeons and allied health professionals.

For more information about AST, please visit AST Web Site.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation

Starbucks barista donates kidney to one of her regulars

Annamarie Ausnes, left, greets barista Sandie Andersen with a rose on Andersen's arrival at Virginia Mason Medical Center for the kidney transplant surgery Tuesday. All went fine. "If you can save somebody's life, it's special," said Jeffrey Andersen, Sandie's husband. Photo by Paul Joseph Brown.

This story is another fine example of human kindness. A waitress in a coffee shop donated one of her kidneys to a regular customer and is a hero in my book. I know of many other instances where chance conversations have led to a living organ donation, sometimes even when the donor and recipient were complete strangers.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Annamarie Ausnes had been visiting her local Starbucks for coffee and small talk with the barista for three years. During their conversations, they talked about almost everything, but Ausnes never once mentioned her failing health.

Ausnes, 55, who works at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, has known about her polycystic kidney disease for nearly 20 years. The genetic disorder causes numerous cysts in the kidney and eventual kidney failure. When her health suddenly began to decline and her kidneys were functioning at only 15 percent, she knew she needed a transplant.

Had her kidney function deteriorated to 12 percent, she would have faced painful dialysis treatments and possible death. Her only option was a transplant. Her husband and son weren't matches. She was facing a long wait on a transplant list.

One day last fall, she mentioned to Sandie Andersen -- the barista she casually knew through her morning caffeine runs -- that her kidneys were shutting down. Andersen, 51, didn't hesitate. She had a blood test to see if she matched her customer. She did.

Tuesday morning, Andersen donated a kidney to Ausnes at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Now, Ausnes has three kidneys. Surgeons said that unlike a heart transplant, her old kidneys "didn't interfere" with the transplant and she had room for the new one to fit.

After what surgeons called a successful surgery, both women face a few days in the hospital, and weeks of recovery, but are expected to be fine, surgeons said.

Their husbands and family members gathered at the hospital Tuesday afternoon, relieved the ordeal was over and thankful their wives found each other.

"I have felt all along something special was going to happen for my wife," said John Ausnes. "She's a special person and she ran into a special person. We've been married for 30 years, and this was my opportunity to be a supportive husband."

Jeffrey Andersen said his wife was groggy when he visited her immediately after surgery, and admired her selflessness at wanting to help a casual acquaintance.

"If you can save somebody's life, it's special," Andersen said. "It's what Sandi wanted to do."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network

Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through tissue donation

Matching Organ Donors

This is an excellent overview of what organs can be transplanted through living donation and the criteria, such as compatibile blood types, that must be met.

From WPTV.com in Florida:

BACKGROUND: In the United States, more than 98,000 men, women and children are waiting for an organ transplant. According to the American Heart Association, a new name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list every 16 minutes. The nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) oversees the national donor list. UNOS has a contract with the Division of Transplantation in the Department of Health and Human Services to uphold the National Organ Transplant Act, a law passed to ensure fairness in the allocation of organs for transplant. The UNOS national list utilizes deceased organ donation, meaning all the organs they allocate to waiting patients come from diseased donors.

THE ALTERNATIVE: Diseased organ donation is extremely important and saves many lives, but living organ donation is equally important. Receiving a live donation is the only alternative to waiting on the diseased list for many patients who are in dire need of a transplant. The practice of live donation dates back to 1954 when a kidney from one twin was successfully transplanted to his brother. Today, more than 6,000 live organ donations take place each year. Organs that can be donated by a living individual include:

• Kidney: The most common type of live donation. There is very little risk to the donor because his or her remaining kidney will do the work of two kidneys.



• Liver: A living donor can donate a segment of his or her liver which will regenerate once transplanted.



• Lung: One lobe of one lung can be donated by a living person.



• Intestine: Although it's very rare, a portion of a person’s intestine can be donated.



• Pancreas: Although it will not regenerate like the liver, a portion of the pancreas can be donated without decreased function for the donor.



• Heart: A domino transplant makes some heart-lung recipients living heart donors. When a patient receives a heart-lung "bloc" from a deceased donor, his or her healthy heart may be donated. This procedure is extremely rare.


COMPATIBILITY: There are some restrictions that may keep live donors from freely donating an organ. Blood and tissue compatibility are the most common. Once blood type is matched, simple tests can be done to determine tissue compatibility. Here's a list of compatible blood types:


• O -- universal donor


• A -- If your blood type is A you can only donate to another person with blood type A or AB


• B -- If your blood type is B you can only donate to blood type B or AB


• AB -- If your blood type is AB than you can only donate to AB alone

For More Information, goto Matching Donors Website.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network

Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through tissue donation