WHY GIVE MIKE ONE OF YOUR KIDNEYS?

BECAUSE LIVING DONATION IS AWESOME.

Without a transplant soon Mike will have to go on dialysis, which is no picnic.  Ask anyone who has tried it.  Mike's father went on dialysis three times, prior to each of his deceased donor transplants, and we REALLY want to avoid this for Mike.  A lot has changed since Mike's father went through all that and the opportunities for a GREAT recovery with a timely living donation is real and we desperately want Mike to have that chance.

Living kidney donation leads to the very best outcomes for patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD).  The objective is to keep Mike from ever having to go on dialysis, recover quickly from a transplant, and live an active life for years to come.  Living, pre-dialysis donations don't always last forever, but they are statistically more successful, last longer, and provide better function than deceased donor kidneys and/or post-dialysis transplants.  Every healthy day Mike gets out of a new kidney is one more day that doctors and scientists have to work on a cure for PKD that could be available to Mike later and one more day he can enjoy with us.

Donors make a short term sacrifice - we know, that sounds like a crazy thing to say about giving up a kidney, but the surgery involves 2-3 days in the hospital, a 2-4 week recovery and smaller scars from a laparoscopic surgery - and the recipient gets the potential for a lifetime of good health.  

NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION - This link is all about asking for and giving up a kidney, which is not as hard as you might think, but yet, a BIG ask...

UNITED NETWORK FOR ORGAN SHARING - UNOS manages the US organ donation network, including the transplant waiting list.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TRANSPLANT SURGEONS - The ASTS is dedicated to saving and improving lives with transplantation.  

The video on this page is from ASTS.  It's about 30 minutes long and has a lot of great information about why living kidney donation is so important.