New Free Site to Post looking for a Kidney

Discussions for Patients, Family, and Friends PD For Patients
1

Hello. I have been on peritoneal dialysis for over a year. My wife is a match and pending one last study, it appears that she may be my donor. But that’s not why I am writing this email.

At my dialysis center I was discussing resources available for living persons wishing to donate an organ for transplant and patients seeking them.

Unfortunately, I only found one site dedicated to this task and they charge almost $100 a week to list an ad by a patient seeking a transplant. As my surgeon tells me, desperate people will pay anything to live. In response to this, I created a not-for-profit corporation and set up a website to assist patients and potential donors with the transplant process.

www.TransplantSearch.org now provides free space for patients and potential donors for organ transplant to post an ad.

In the event you or someone you know is seeking an organ for transplant, please post an ad. In the event that you know any person willing to donate an organ, please ask him or her to post an ad on www.TransplantSearch.org

Anyone seeking an organ transplant will be grateful for any support you can contribute to making this site a success. please forward this email to your friends and family.

2

I am always leery of computer websites that offer to match organ donors and recipients. How do you monitor who posts to the site to prevent unscrupulous people from preying on vulnerable people desperate for a transplant? I talked with a patient once who used a matching website. He had a donor who said he wanted to donate out of the goodness of his heart. He and the donor went through testing, but at the last minute right before the transplant was to occur, the donor asked for tens of thousands of dollars for “expenses.” Needless to say, the surgery was cancelled leaving the recipient depressed, angry, and frustrated. The process cost the transplant program time and money…all because the donor was not what he appeared to be. Transplant facilities do their best to screen out people that expect something for their donation, but certain personality types can be quite convincing and very dishonest.

How do you assure that no money changes hands between the donor and the recipient? The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) that was passed in 1984 and prohibits the exchange of valuable consideration (money, property, etc.) to an organ donor. The donor is supposed to give the gift of his/her organ freely. There is a $50,000 fine and/or prison sentence of up to 5 years for violating this Act. Not only is there a law against the exchange of money, but in other countries where paid donation occurs “under the table,” surveys of donors show that paid organ donors had unexpected complications that left them financially worse off after the “donation” than they were before.

I hope you will rethink your website.

There are a number of innovative ways to get organ transplants today that do abide by the law.
– Direct living donations involve a living donor who is a family member, spouse, friend of the recipient
– Paired donor exchange involve two donors and recipients The donors do not match their intended recipients but match the other pair’s recipient. For example: The husband in couple A gives his kidney to the wife in couple B and the wife in couple B gives her kidney to the husband in couple A.
– Intended recipient donation where the living donor does not match the intended recipient. The donor gives his/her organ to an unknown recipient so the friend or relative of the living donor who needs a transplant himself/herself gets priority points to get an organ from the waiting list of deceased donors.

People wanting to learn more about these types of transplants should contact the United Network for Organ Sharing at 888-TXINFO1. You can read white papers about living organ donation at:
http://www.unos.org/living_donation.asp

3

I agree with almost everything you say. There are unscrupulous people out there etc. That cannot be helped. As I recall 75% of those who offer a kidney to someone, back out before surgery.

I did the site for w couple of reasons:

Currently there is a website out there that charges about $100 per week for a patient to post. They boast thousands of willing potential donors. The fee is outrageous and the numbers quoted are probably inaccurate. The site does however pull in transplants. I have a friend that got one.

So one reason I did the site was to give those people who cannoit afford to advertise on the internet a free place to go. I am hoping to start scanning letters for those who dont have internet access.

The idea about posting on web boards, websites and email is to not only raise awareness, but to find that special person who, through happenstance comes upon a story that touches the heart and produces a transplant. There are success stories of internet meetings.

So another reason I did the site was to get more people thinking about giving an organ to save a life. UNOS does not put a face on the patient, posting at the site does.

People will always be disappointed through fraud etc. and people must not profit from transplants. I am sure that there have been unscrupulous persons proffering organs. I bet you could find one in the local mall. But if you get 5 disappointments and one real donor, then it would seem to be worth the effort.

A hospital rejected a transplant from the site that I mentioned above which takes money for ads because the site took money from patients.

Our site www.tranplantsearch.org take no money and is free.

There is so little awareness of the plight of donees. The UNOS site talks of misconceptions. And with respect to your mention of UNOS, I cannot say whether UNOS could be doing a better job of allocation or of getting the word out with respect to cadaver donation.

The site www.transplantsearch.org seeks living donors.

I see no ethical problems offering people free space to tell the world that they are in need of an organ for transplant. I do see a lot of very sick people doing hemodialysis when I go in for PD.

Free advertising is good. It is not bad. If one person happens on to the site and donates, the site is a success.

If you know of any potential organ donors, please ask them to take a look at the site. And please post an ad yourself. Good Luck.

4

Hello, just doing some research and following links, it brought me here. I am having a dilemma. I read a live donor story, it was compelling. Was considering being a live donor. I have always been an organ donor on my License, (I am 46) any ways, when I saw all the testing, (needles and more needles) I don’t think I could go through with it. I was thinking also that it is wrong to “sell” a body part, and the laws cover that. But if people could get some type of compensation for the pain and suffering it may get a lot more people to consider. I know it sounds shallow, and ya think"what’s in it for me" then you think, I can save a life and then you say yeah, but look at the hell I would have to go through. I think if they allowed a bit of financial(not a lot) but something, it seems like a lot more people would step up. It may be enough to get me to do it… I know it sounds so horrible, but hey, so are needles, testing, Dr.s and hospitals! If anyone would like to help me out with my selfish struggle, I would gladly take any advice. dlpalmer63@yahoo.com

5

These are tricky questions, and the community is debating them. There is a good discussion of this very question on Bill Peckham’s blog: Dialysis from the Sharp End of the Needle. Check this out: