Anonymous poses this question about the last post:

It is interesting that a live donor is so much better. Considering we are all encouraged to be organ donors at death. I thought donation of organs had to be very soon after death to be viable. I wonder what the difference is?

It’s my understanding that a donation from a live donor lasts a little bit longer than a kidney transplanted from a deceased donor. There are differing opinions on this. For a near perfect deceased match and a good living donor donation I understand them to be almost equal. The center our kids are at will not transplant a kidney that has been without a blood source for more than 24 hours. With children who need a transplant an extra 4-7 years of the life of a kidney is important because they are already at a disadvantage by their age in the knowledge that they will require another transplant (or more) in the future. Each time they are transplanted or receive blood products they decrease the pool of people they can get kidneys from in the future.

Deceased donors are vital. The kidney is the only organ that has an option for treatment if it fails: dialysis. We are very grateful for this option. It is not ideal though. It only adds about 15% function. There’s a quality of life issue: fatigue, regulation of many levels in the body, time away from jobs, family, social interaction (for my child anyway – he literally has no playmates right now), etc. Don’t get me wrong. I believe it is saving our son’s life and we are thankful and we deal with the issues relating to dialysis. But it is a temporary solution (years for some people) that costs our government millions.

There still aren’t enough donations – living or non-living. With over 90,000 people on this list waiting for an organ and over 72,000 of them waiting for a kidney – even with a few years less life on a deceased donor kidney it is a beautiful gift of life – of quality of life that many, including us would be blessed to have.

I hope that Gage’s kidney will be from a living donor – not only because some statistics show that a living donation kidney is a bit better – but because I know people who are on dialysis or in renal failure or will be and it would be wonderful if that kidney that Gage wouldn’t need could give that quality of life to someone else.