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My older sister had end-stage renal failure (from IgA nephropathy [0]) and was on dialysis, so I donated my kidney to her. If you want to make an incredible dif

My older sister had end-stage renal failure (from IgA nephropathy [0]) and was on dialysis, so I donated my kidney to her. If you want to make an incredible difference in someone's life, I can't recommend it enough! There are cool computer science problems involved: imagine person A1 wants to donate their kidney to their partner A2 but they aren't a match. Now imagine many such pairs exist (B1/B2, C1/C2, D1/D2 etc.) and you start noticing that while A1 can't donate to A2, they can donate to B2, and B1 can donate to C2, and so on! Thus the kidney chain is born. You get everyone together and have them agree that if their partner gets a kidney donation, they'll pass on the favor to someone else. All that's needed is a single purely-altruistic donor to start the fire. The longest such chain has reached over 100 people! [1] Anyway, the surgery is laparoscopic and has an extremely low fatality rate: around 1/10,000, which is an order of magnitude lower than the all-cause mortality rate for living a single year of your 20s. The kidney is a fairly isolated organ, basically only attached to you via the renal artery/vein, the ureter (which carries urine to your bladder), and some fascia (internal connective tissue). You can see a full video of the surgery at [2] (if you're into that kind of thing). I was walking within hours of the surgery, discharged within two days, and back in the gym within 5 weeks. My life is not any different than pre-donation, and if anything goes wrong with my remaining kidney I go to the top of the donation wait-list! If you're interested, you can see more info at [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IgA_nephropathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IgA_nephropathy [1] https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nation-s-longest-kidney-transplant-chain-surpasses-100-donations.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nation-s-longe... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-YhyYrMsc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-YhyYrMsc [3] https://www.kidneyfund.org/kidney-disease/kidney-donation.html https://www.kidneyfund.org/kidney-disease/kidney-donation.ht...

xoa 7y ago
Kidney donation may be one of the most admirable and heroic things many people can do for another. I too have had family with renal failure (though I was not a match), and the potential to simply fix it with a match is wonderful. But anyone considering it should internalize upfront that there are potential real long term risks, and a surprising paucity of data since long term outcomes are apparently not rigorously followed. See for example "At 18 years old, he donated a kidney. Now, he regrets it"[0]. It's very much not to discourage anyone, but it'd be a shame to not go in with eyes wide open and have what should be something to be proud of marred by any feelings of deception. I have definitely seen the lack of hard long term data on real risks of kidney donation downplayed, it's not fair to portray "we don't see high risks" when that's because we just don't see much period. "Going to the top of the donation wait-list" for example is good, but there is in fact still a wait list. All that said, the positive vs negative ratio certainly still appears high depending on the situation. And developments like the one in this article could also reasonably factor into an individuals analysis, after all in 20-30 years it may be a solved problem with high quality synthetic organs, so a young person giving a kidney now is more helping to bridge the gap, and by the time they themselves might have an issue they'll have saved a life yet not have the same trouble. Even so, donators should fully recognize that, all of them should absolutely feel as good about it as you clearly do. ---- 0: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18-years-old-he-donated-a-kidney-now-he-regrets-it/2016/09/30/cc9407d8-5ff9-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18...
- random314 7y ago
  As for the guy regretting it, the only real issue is the possibility of getting kidney disease going up from 0.1% to 1.0%. He is greatly over exaggerating the risk. You are screened for potential kidney risk factors before donating. Your life expectancy is not affected.

xoa 7y ago

Kidney donation may be one of the most admirable and heroic things many people can do for another. I too have had family with renal failure (though I was not a match), and the potential to simply fix it with a match is wonderful. But anyone considering it should internalize upfront that there are potential real long term risks, and a surprising paucity of data since long term outcomes are apparently not rigorously followed. See for example "At 18 years old, he donated a kidney. Now, he regrets it"[0]. It's very much not to discourage anyone, but it'd be a shame to not go in with eyes wide open and have what should be something to be proud of marred by any feelings of deception. I have definitely seen the lack of hard long term data on real risks of kidney donation downplayed, it's not fair to portray "we don't see high risks" when that's because we just don't see much period. "Going to the top of the donation wait-list" for example is good, but there is in fact still a wait list. All that said, the positive vs negative ratio certainly still appears high depending on the situation. And developments like the one in this article could also reasonably factor into an individuals analysis, after all in 20-30 years it may be a solved problem with high quality synthetic organs, so a young person giving a kidney now is more helping to bridge the gap, and by the time they themselves might have an issue they'll have saved a life yet not have the same trouble. Even so, donators should fully recognize that, all of them should absolutely feel as good about it as you clearly do. ---- 0: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18-years-old-he-donated-a-kidney-now-he-regrets-it/2016/09/30/cc9407d8-5ff9-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18...

random314 7y ago
As for the guy regretting it, the only real issue is the possibility of getting kidney disease going up from 0.1% to 1.0%. He is greatly over exaggerating the risk. You are screened for potential kidney risk factors before donating. Your life expectancy is not affected.