Kidney Swapping:
Matching willing donors with kidney failure patients who are compatible,
when the donor is not directly compatible with the recipient he or she is trying to help.
All forms of dialysis, hemodialysis, home dialysis, peritoneal dialysis, save lives by cleansing the bloodstream of waste products and excess fluid. However, dialysis does not provide the same 24/7 cleansing effects on the blood and body as a natural kidney does. This is why many patients with chronic kidney disease or kidney failure look forward to receiving a kidney transplant.
For a number of reasons, healthy kidneys available for transplantation into patients with kidney failure are in relatively short supply. " Kidney swaps" are a new means of trying to match willing kidney donors with advance CKD (chronic kidney disease) kidney failure patients, whose related kidney donors are not immunologically related to the patient. Kidney swaps involve a chain of patients and donors who are matched and undergo transplantation simultaneously in the same or different geographic locations. A variety of factors, including the internet, plasmapheresis, better surgical and transplantation medical techniques, and generous selfless donors have made kidney swapping possible. A number of kidney swapping or "paired exchange" organizations now exist.
Below are links to some recent heartwarming kidney swapping stories.
Washington Hospital Center hosts participants
|
|
|
|
|
