A Donation That Could Save My Life
The Mass General Transplant Center is the largest and most experienced living kidney donor program in the region. A live donation would allow me to receive a transplant without waiting for an organ from a deceased donor, which takes five years. Five years that I would have to endure 12+ hours of medical treatments a week and be unable to work or live a typical lifestyle.
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MGH preforms an in-depth evaluation to ensure that any potential donor is in great physical and mental condition to guarantee that there will not be any complications during the transplant. The exact tests can vary from person to person but typical consist of blood work, urine samples, and a psychological evaluation.
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MGH ensures that donors identities are kept a secret until if and when the donor decides to share that with the patient. I am only told how many people sign up to donate and then how many were approved vs. denied. So far I have had two family members sign up, both of which were denied due to medical problems found during the evaluations.
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The evaluations can last weeks to months depending on the exact tests the doctors decide to preform. For my last potential donor, it took five months. If the donor is approved, they get to decide the date of the surgery. Additionally, even if a donor is approved, they can decide to not go through with the donation at any time.
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Anyone is welcome to fill out the form to donate on the MGH website but there are some things that will make you ineligible. This includes any physical illnesses such as an autoimmune disease, if you are going to be pregnant later in life, or if you have any potential genetic conditions. It is okay if you are not a blood or kidney match to me, they are able to do a swap in which you would donate to someone else and their donor donates to me.