Facebook used to find kidney donor and raise funds for transplant

We are gradually starting to see people using social networking sites to seek living organ donors and to fund raise for their transplant costs. I think this is just the beginning of a trend as more patients try to find ways to get their life-saving transplant.

Facebook Plea Yields Old Friend, Kidney Donor

Reported by Neda Iranpour
CBS13 - Sacremento Area Local News

A Citrus Heights man in need of a new kidney turned to the popular social networking site Facebook to ask for help, and managed to connect with an old friend who happened to be a perfect match.

Eli Powell, a father of two boys, learned he has Berger's disease three years ago, which would eventually eat away his kidneys with toxins. For three hours, three times a week, Eli goes through dialysis to help clean his blood.

"It's been rough, it's been hard, but I'm making it okay," Eli said.

With a new kidney, Eli could live a more normal life, so he put a call out on Facebook, "saying I need help, I need a kidney transplant," he said.

His plea caught the attention and compassion of a long-lost friend who he hadn't heard from in a decade. Paul Jones responded to the advertisement and ended up being a match for the friend he met in the eighth grade at E.V. Cain Middle School in Auburn.

"Figured he's young, has a family, and I'd want someone to do that for me if I was in his position," Paul said. "If we can both be healthy and survive, live long happy lives, I don't see how I couldn't do it."

The transplant will happen this August. Paul will have a few noticeable scars and about two months of pain and recovery.

"It's awesome. It's nice to know people out there who are willing to help like that," Eli said. "It's gonna be a life changing experience for both of us, he literally is going to be part of me for the rest of my life."

Eli is also using Facebook to raise funds for the transplant.

“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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Record breaking 13 kidney swap transplants

26 Operations, 13 Kidneys: Hope To Few With Little

Kidney exchanges widens the pool of potential donor organs. Patients find a friend or relative who isn't compatible with them but will donate on their behalf, and the pairs are mixed and matched and a domino effect begins.

This amazing pioneering effort by Georgetown University Hospital to expand kidney transplants was documented by AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard. Read the story at the following link: 26 operations, 13 kidneys

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be a 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.

Pennsylvania hospital reports first-ever double transplant

I think this is the first heart-kidney transplant I've heard about. Traditionally, significant kidney disease has been a contraindication for heart transplantation. I read about transplant cardiologists and surgeons at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who are aggressively taking an alternative approach by performing simultaneous heart and kidney transplantation. In the process, they are helping those who did not seem to have much hope of ever getting a new heart. There have been many kidney/pancreas and heart/lung transplants but heart/kidney transplants are rare indeed.

Lebanon Daily News
The Associated Press
Updated: 09/23/2009 07:53:15 AM EDT

PITTSBURGH—Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh is reporting its first-ever dual organ transplant since the facility started transplanting organs in 1987.

The hospital says a 63-year-old man continues to recover after receiving a transplanted heart and kidney on Aug. 30. The surgery took 10 hours.

The man was suffering from cardiomyopathy (car-dee-OH-my-AW'-path-ee) or a weak heart. His poor circulation, in turn, damaged his kidneys.

Doctors say one advantage to the double-organ transplant is that patients are less likely to reject a transplanted heart if they also receive a kidney at the same time. Researchers aren't sure why that is, but say it may be because the kidneys store immune system cells that would cause a new organ to be rejected.

“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. 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 transplant.