"A person can live without one of two kidneys, and -- believe it or not -- you can donate part of your liver and your liver will grow back. Obviously being a living donor is making a huge gift and it can have risks for you, although major transplant centers have been minimizing those greatly."
There is so much misinformation in this paragraph I hardly know how to begin.
- 4.4 living kidney donors die each yr in the US within 12 months of surgery.
- 20% of LKDs experience physical complications, some of which are severe and chronic.
- 40% of living liver donors experience physical complications.
- 20-30% of all living donors suffer from depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Yet not a single transplant center offers aftercare or support.
- There are NO national standards of living donor care in the US. This means that all of the 20+ transplant programs make up their own rules and are accountable to no one.
- Nearly 60 yrs after the first living kidney donor transplant, there is NO comprehensive data on LDs health and well-being. In 2000, the Sec of Health mandated one yr of follow-up on all LDs (2 yrs as of 2006) yet over a decade later, more than 30% of LDs are still reported 'lost', and not one center has been penalized for noncompliance. OPTN's own data task force called the database "woefully inadequate" and "useless" for research or analysis.
- Transplant recipients are followed for ten years, and bone marrow donors have a govt sponsored registry. Yet living donors have nothing.
As the sister of a kidney transplant recipient, and friend of a heart transplant recipient, I understand the need for organ donors. But as a living kidney donor and living donor activist, I find this constant minimization of the risks of living donation to be abhorrent and unethical. The public should not be viewed as medical supply. Living donors are people too.
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"A person can live without one of two kidneys, and -- believe it or not -- you can donate part of your liver and your liver will grow back. Obviously being a living donor is making a huge gift and it can have risks for you, although major transplant centers have been minimizing those greatly."
There is so much misinformation in this paragraph I hardly know how to begin.
- 4.4 living kidney donors die each yr in the US within 12 months of surgery.
- 20% of LKDs experience physical complications, some of which are severe and chronic.
- 40% of living liver donors experience physical complications.
- 20-30% of all living donors suffer from depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Yet not a single transplant center offers aftercare or support.
- There are NO national standards of living donor care in the US. This means that all of the 20+ transplant programs make up their own rules and are accountable to no one.
- Nearly 60 yrs after the first living kidney donor transplant, there is NO comprehensive data on LDs health and well-being. In 2000, the Sec of Health mandated one yr of follow-up on all LDs (2 yrs as of 2006) yet over a decade later, more than 30% of LDs are still reported 'lost', and not one center has been penalized for noncompliance. OPTN's own data task force called the database "woefully inadequate" and "useless" for research or analysis.
- Transplant recipients are followed for ten years, and bone marrow donors have a govt sponsored registry. Yet living donors have nothing.
As the sister of a kidney transplant recipient, and friend of a heart transplant recipient, I understand the need for organ donors. But as a living kidney donor and living donor activist, I find this constant minimization of the risks of living donation to be abhorrent and unethical. The public should not be viewed as medical supply. Living donors are people too.
www.livingdonor101.com
April 3, 2012 - 7:23pmThis Comment
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