The decision to donate a kidney for the purpose of transplantation is not an easy one to make. Naturally, potential donors have many questions and concerns about the process and all of the risks involved.
The following interview with a donor by the name of Barbara Thomas contains valuable information from the perspective of someone who has successfully undergone the process of donating a kidney.
As Barbara mentions in the video, the health insurance of the recipient (assuming they are insured) should cover almost all of the costs associated with the transplant (Barbara did have to pay out of pocket for things like transportation to and from the hospital).
Modern advancements in medicine and surgical procedures have fortunately made it so that experiences like Barbara’s have become much more common. Today, it is safer than ever to donate a kidney and quite possibly save someone’s life by doing so.
We strongly encourage you to watch the above video for detailed information about the experience of living kidney donation.
In a bizarre case that some are calling a miracle, a kidney scheduled to be transplanted in just a few weeks baffled doctors in the UK as it somehow began healing itself.
At just 9 years old, Emily Clark had already battled kidney cancer twice and had one kidney removed. Emily’s mother, Claire, was gearing up to donate one of her own kidneys to her daughter when doctors noticed that Emily’s kidney function had improved from 18% to 35%, practically overnight.
Emily’s parents attribute this miraculous turn of events to her having a guardian angel watching over their eldest daughter.
A woman who was rendered severely diabetic due to an alleged error made by surgeons finally got some good news after The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics agreed to pay $1,500,000 to settle the lawsuit brought against them for the negligence.
The patient, Nancy Kammerer, was undergoing a routine kidney transplant when surgeons accidentally cut a part of her pancreas, which subsequently required that the damaged organ be removed.
At 56-years old, Nancy is now a diabetic who will have a life-long dependency on insulin. This new aggravated condition forced her to leave her occupation at Wells Fargo. In the malpractice lawsuit, Kammerer also alleged that the surgeons were negligent because they used a medical record in her patient file that was inaccurate.
Although the hospital denied any liability in the incident (which occurred in 2008), this recent large settlement may be an indication that they feared the courts might have a different point of view.
Kidney transplantation, like any major surgery, can be very dangerous. The risk factor is one disadvantage of a kidney transplant that you may want to consider if you are a candidate for the surgery. However, unfortunate incidents like this one that Ms Kammerer experienced are in the minority of cases.