Two Lives,For some patients, finding a kidney donor is a relatively simple process. For those with complications, it can take years. Many have died while waiting for a compatible match. How the revolutionary new “swap” system is changing all that, plus the health risks that every donor needs to know about.
When Ross Bloom was wheeled into a hospital operating theater in July 2009 he and his family were elated. They had waited more than two years for this moment — finally a kidney had been found that would save Ross’s life.
For nearly two decades Ross had struggled with end-stage renal disease (ESRD/kidney failure) a condition he developed after being diagnosed with diabetes. Ross now fifty-seven spent five years on dialysis a machine tethered to his abdomen filtering impurities and toxic fluid from his blood. He watched helplessly as his wife and two young sons adjusted their lives to care for a desperately ill husband and father. Ross’s health drastically improved when he received a kidney transplant. Yet the kidney gave out after nine years propelling him once again into a serious state of ESRD.
The only solution was another kidney transplant — but finding the right match turned out to be a challenging anxiety-producing endeavor. In September of 2006 his doctors were in a state of alert ready to perform a transplant on a moment’s notice only to be informed at the last minute that the cross-match that determines tissue compatibility between Ross and the intended cadaver kidney was not a match. “We never allowed ourselves to get excited ” admits his wife Fern. “We understood that in all likelihood it would not work out.”
But this time was different. The medical staff at the Ronald Reagan Hospital of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) were ready to operate. The cross-match was almost perfect and the fifty-nine-year-old live male donor had no intention of backing down.
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