Kidney donated by co-worker supports the gift-of-life twice

The idea of donating a kidney may seem daunting. Many questions come up — what if I need it later? Am I healthy enough to donate? And then, there’s the scheduling…when could I possibly find time to go through this process?

Dr. Amanda Bailey, Transplant Director and a transplant surgeon with Virginia Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital appreciates how important it is helping potential donors comfortable with the process. “Organ donation can save lives. We evaluate potential donors with a thorough workup to determine if they care a candidate. We proceed with donation at a pace that is comfortable for the donor..”

For those in need of a kidney donation, the need far outweighs availability. Making the process easier for living donors is one critical way to answer the challenge.

Danny McDonald, a self-described healthy 30-something man was motivated to donate after a co-worker shared his personal story and journey to find a donor.

“his story kinda made me start doing some research on my own [and I] learned a lot about kidneys and found out you don't need two to live a normal life, so obviously [I] wanted to learn more about that…[I] figured you know why not take the chance and get tested and see if it works out …[it] took a few months and then I got approved.”

Danny was not only inspired by his co-worker’s appeal but also personally motivated as his grandfather lived on dialysis for the last several months of his life.

A challenge, or so he thought, would be the timing…Danny had plans in the upcoming months and needed to donate while allowing time to heal. That’s how the ‘swapping program’ became a solution for donating on his schedule.

“The Swapping program is a Paired Kidney Exchange Program through the National Kidney Registry. This allows donors who are not compatible to donate for a specific person, the chance to donate for someone else…[they can also] enroll in the Voucher program which affords the donor the opportunity to donate on their timeline and name recipients for the kidney…allowing more access to kidneys for recipients. A donor can change more than one person's life through this program.” says Dr. Bailey.

Danny began the process and within months the transplanted donation was made he was back to the quality of life he’s used to living.

“…honestly going to surgery, it was kind of weird how relaxed I was. I wasn't really worried about anything with [it]. I was more worried about recovery...just how that was gonna look and also recovery was much easier than I expected. [after surgery] I was walking laps around the hospital cause I felt great...” Danny shared.

The donation, facilitated by Virginia Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, truly gave the gift of life to two people. A recipient across the country received Danny’s kidney and his co-worker is ready to receive a transplant as soon as one becomes available.

Dr. Bailey appreciates the impact of this gift and the power of the kidney swapping program, “The swapping program can take stress out of the waiting process for the recipient. It allows the donor to donate when they want to for example at a certain time of year that fits their life schedule. The recipient knows they have a kidney waiting for them once they are medically ready for kidney transplant. This takes away stress of trying to link up the health of the recipient as well as when the recipient is able to proceed with donation and the timing of donation that is best for the donor. There are not enough deceased donors for all the patients on the waiting list. This allows more patients to receive kidneys...”