Kidney Transplants Save Lives

Did you know that the average patient with end stage renal disease will live 10 years longer if they receive a kidney transplant versus staying on dialysis? Unfortunately, there are not enough kidneys to help everyone in need receive a kidney transplant. Over 73,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in America. Sadly, about 12 of these patients die every day while awaiting a kidney transplant, or one person every two hours. To make matters worse, there are mysteries of the immune system that sometimes prevent willing living kidney donors from being able to donate to their loved ones. It is estimated that one third of all willing kidney donors will have an incompatible blood type with their intended recipient.

Now for the good news. There is a new way to overcome this problem: an arrangement called paired donation. Kidney paired donation matches one incompatible donor/recipient pair to another pair with a complementary incompatibility, so that the donor of the first pair gives to the recipient of the second, and vice versa. In other words, the two pairs swap kidneys. For an animation that explains paired donation, please click on the link on the left-hand side of this page, or click here.

We have Alliance Partners performing kidney transplants in many locations. Click the map on the left, or click here, to go to the Alliance member location page.

Matt Jones (left) met Tracy Armstrong (right) for the first time at the APD's First Anniversary celebration that took place on Saturday, Oct. 18 in Perrysburg, OH. Matt was the altruistic donor who started the world's first NEAD chain in July 2007, and Tracy followed in his footsteps in December 2007. Matt's chain is now at 10 transplants and still growing; Tracy's is currently at five.