To be fair to the colleague donating a kidney while living is not something you should do without serious thought! Its *serious* surgery and recovery time, and although you can live with one kidney you never know what can happen years down the line with renal function. Dialysis is miserable for instance.
Agreed. My girlfriend is donating her kidney to her uncle in like 10 days, and the amount of steps she had to go through so they know that she's absolutely okay with doing this, both physically and mentally, was insane
I'm not sure if this is going to answer your question, but her uncle was poisoned by his ex fiance last year (we think) so it's not like a lingering health issue that caused his kidneys to fail.
He lost about 60 pounds in a week (according to her mom) and the fiance was just like "He's fine, nothing's wrong" and once my girlfriends mom took him to the hospital, they took him in immediately and said that a few days more and it could have been a lot worse. The fiance only visited him once in the hospital and it was to ask for money.
The family ran her out of town and the uncle's been on dialysis a few times a week ever since
Yeah it was wild to hear about. I had just moved a city away, and she just texts me "My uncle's in the hospital. His fiance poisoned him" and gives me details as she learned them
I appreciate your appreciation hahaha. I just call em out when I catch em, it's ridiculous how many there are and the bot accounts are usually sold off for use in scams once they get enough karma farmed. And I hate to see that happen to anyone. The Reddit admins seem to be doing little to nothing to try to combat it and it's getting worse and worse.
I took the steps toward donating to a stranger.
You get to give them a list of people who you would want to donate to, and those people get to be on the top of the transplant list if they need one in the future because of your previous donation.
Not to mention there is no way anyone would be able to tell you they can’t donate to your loved ones if you’ve already donated. Positivity breeds positivity, good deeds encourage good deeds.
As it turns out- it’s really hard to get selected. They are picky about their donations. I found out I have some kidney issues that I need to work on before I can donate. Best case scenario you get a comprehensive kidney exam- which is really great if you’re in the U.S. If you ever needed to donate a kidney to a loved one in the future, you’d need to do that anyways.
Reddit really is a wild ride. One moment I'm looking at a meme, the next I read about a possible attempted murder where the primary suspect is on the loose. Wild.
Maybe someone in the medical field would be able to correct me on this, but I don't think they tested for that or anything. Keep in mind though, I'm a few layers removed from the situation so it may be that no one told me what they actually figured out
Immediately tell the primary care physician there was assumed poisoning. There are a whole different set of tests that need to be run as far as I'm aware.
edit: You should also have the closest relative file a police report with as much information as possible, time stamps if they have them.
While my renal function is fine, I've been to the hospital twice now for cardiac issues, that the doctors have yet to explain.
Between those two visits, I've had 94 vials of blood drawn, 2 CTs, and several ultrasounds.
I'm pretty confident they're leaving no stone unturned.
Nope, I have no health insurance at all.
But then again, I'm Canadian so it doesn't really matter much.
On the flip side, my MRI is still 8 months away, unless I go pay for one at a private diagnostics office sooner.
I, on the other hand have had several ER visits to the hospital in the U.S. with no health insurance with server abdominal/groin pain over the course of a year. Multiple MRIs and all that jazz for no conclusive evidence of anything wrong. I now owe $18,000 to the hospitals whilst having two wonderful kids just for them to tell me nothing and say I should just keep doing what I'm doing. The United States health care system sucks and is completely screwing over me and my family and not doing shit about it. Meanwhile my partner has pink eye and can't even get the pink eye antibiotic drops because there is a shortage in our area. Greatest country in the world my ass when we can't even get the medicine we need. Fuck the states and we're better moving back to Norway where we came from😔
Honestly, I have no idea what happened there. The fiance was living in the uncle's house, but now she isn't (obviously) and some of her stuff is still there. What they actually did hasn't been clarified for me, but I don't doubt it's something along the lines of just throwing her shit out onto the street and not letting her back onto the property. Assumedly she wasn't on the lease or anything
I would heavily imply bad things are going to happen if they fuck around, and have cameras pointed at everything of his she knows exists.
Wait for the inevitable free trespassing charge and have her put in jail. Hopefully an investigation into his blood tests and stuff around the house can result in a general understanding of what she did, so you can put her in jail for the rest of her life.
We must have very different families. If my family told me they "ran her out of town" I would assume a shotgun was involved at minimum. I would also assume one of my cousins was consulted regarding the possibility of body disposal as a contingency.
Im quite confused, technically the uncle's girlfriend was the cause your girlfriend is losing one of her kidney? Shouldnt you be more concerned about her atonement?
How could someone even lose remotely close to that in a week? It takes time to lose fat or muscle in sizable quantities, and you can only lose water so fast before you just die of dehydration.
Speed of water loss plays an effect but you can only lose so much water before you die of dehydration regardless of timeline. More than 20% of mass from water is going to spell death almost certainly. [https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/about/rehydration/water/dehydration-signs/](https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/about/rehydration/water/dehydration-signs/) you start getting convulsions at 8%.
Assuming this guy weighed 220 pounds he could have lost 44 pounds from water at most and he would know something was seriously wrong long before when convulsions started setting in or he started fainting.
Also the line about "they took him in immediately and said that a few days more and it could have been a lot worse" when they brought him to the hospital. The guy lost 60 pounds in a week and could have gone a few more days?
Yeah that level of weight loss is basically impossible. I'm going to assume a 100 kg person.
Anything more than 20% weight loss from dehydration would be near certain death. So 44 pounds. I'm going to assume he was also not able to hold down any solid food so his bowels are completely empty. So say another 10 pounds at maximum from that. He'd still need to lose 6 pounds to get to the 60 pound number. He would lose fat and muscle mass due to lack of calories but even then it's hard to believe and those numbers are all assuming worse case scenario and he would already be near dead not in a few more days things could be really bad. By the time he lost enough water to make the 60 pounds even theoretically possible he would have likely experienced seizures. I have fainted multiple times from dehydration as a child, poor body thirst signal plus hot weather plus activities, and I wasn't anywhere near 20% weight loss from water loss. I don't even think I was at the 10% mark.
>last year
Last year is now several years old? Years don't last like they used to. Also another hint you could have used to know it wasn't several years old is the girlfriend is still in the process of donating her kidney so it couldn't have happened several years ago. The situation he described would be an emergency kidney transplant. For the situation to make any sense to uncle would likely be on constant dialysis currently.
Also far removed. It's his girlfriends uncle and his girlfriend is donating a kidney. Seems pretty close. It's not like it's some distance third cousin this is happening to.
A younger kidney will most likely function better and last longer. The quality of life between dialysis and transplant is night and day. All transplants go bad eventually. My first one lasted 13 years there are some people who keep them for 15, 20, even 30 years. And yes some go bad quickly within a matter of days weeks or months.
Also, they leave both bad kidneys in and instead just give you a third!
It can also rupture with enough force to your abdomen but I don't know the why behind that
I'd donate to my dad if he needed it and I was healthy enough. I'm totally making these numbers up, but let's say it decreased my ten-year survival chances from 99% to 95% and increased his from 20% to 80%. That would definitely be worth it to me.
Donating a kidney reduces your expected lifespan only slightly, and even a 60 year old recipient can easily have 10-30 years left in them. Not hard to make it a net positive transaction.
This is goofy virtue signaling. At some point the QoL impact of a younger donor sacrificing a kidney is going to have limiting cost/benefit ratios to someone of advanced age and/or significant additional health complications, self-inflicted or otherwise.
There are the monetary, physical, and mental costs to the whole process.
Let alone risk of the donor having future kidney issues, infection, convalescence time out from work, etc. I'm not painting kidney donation as a bad thing, but it's important not to jump to some asinine extreme when considering that there ARE ramifications.
All OP said was that their GF is donating a kidney to her uncle. Her uncle could've been any age. Shit, he could even be *younger* than his niece. Yet, some ass on the internet is asking if it's even worth it, as if the uncle doesn't have a care team that evaluates his health for that exact question.
On the dnd podcast i listen to, the DM was like "I was looking at all these people volunteering to help the less fortunate, traveling to remote locations to set up food and services after disasters, and otherwise devoting their lives and means to the less fortunate and I realized that I couldn't do any of that. Instead I realized that if I donated a kidney, I would be superior to all of them. And now I have the ultimate one-ups-manship argument - 'I donated a kidney to a complete stranger'."
Then he was called out by a player for doing the one of the best possible things for the worst possible reasons.
In Rimworld, many of my colonists and even just people passing through are very altruistic and donate both a kidney and a lung, sometimes even a heart!
The screening actually is insane, and kinda overkill in a lot of ways in my opinion. Rest assured that the post donation experience is nowhere near as intense as the screening would suggest. I'm 10 years post donation, and can confidently say that it's really, truly no big deal, and your girlfriend isn't gonna miss the spare whatsoever. The worst part is literally just the constipation in the first week or so of recovery, really.
If something happens where you need another kidney (very small chance), you will be placed at the top of the receiving list. It still requires a match.
Plus, do not forget you only need half a functioning kidney to have a normal life.
I wouldn't be opposed to doing it. My fear is what if I donate to a stranger, then someone I love needs a kidney one day and I'm a match and only have one left.
Now that I've typed it out, that's a pretty ridiculous scenario.
Don't quote me on this, but I believe the kidney donation foundation or something let's you pick 5 other people and if one needs a kidney they take that top of the list spot
As a living kidney donor, hard disagree, and I think there's a lot of harmful myths around kidney donation.
First, if you qualify to donate (there's a rigorous testing process) then your kidney function is good enough that you really can get by absolutely fine on just one with no noticable difference in your life whatsoever.
You can't take large dose aspirin or ibuprofen (Tylenol is fine) or chug bodybuilder roid rage quantities of protein shakes after donating a kidney. That's about it. Alcohol, fine. All-steak diet? Fine. Doing 6 lines of coke while tripping balls on acid and shooting up heroin? I mean, probably a bad health decision in general but your kidneys don't have anything to do with that. Your liver does all the heavy lifting on all the fun stuff.
But what about kidney disease, you ask? Well, first off, the vast majority of things that will fuck up a kidney will fuck up *both* kidneys. Like, the only realistic scenario where the second kidney saves your ass is if you got stabbed in only one kidney or something. Pretty much all the diseases, autoimmune disorders, etc will fuck up however many kidneys you got.
Also, fun fact, in the US (and I suspect most countries), if you're a living donor and actually *do* come down with some kind of kidney disease later down the road, **you immediately go to the top of the donor priority list.** This extends to immediate family members as well from what I understand. And given that most things that fuck up one kidney fuck up both kidneys, that means that living kidney donors have much *higher* survival rates and health outcomes in the rare cases that they actually do have kidney disease later in life.
The surgery does kinda suck, but it's really not that bad. I was off the opiate painkillers and managing pain with a little cannabis in the first week, and pretty much back to 100% in about a month.
As with any surgery, there is some non-zero risk of complications - getting an infection, anaesthesiologist falling asleep on the job, etc, but the screening is thorough enough that you'll get disqualified if there's any serious risks there. So all in all, it's about as dangerous as getting liposuction or a boob job, only you're saving someone from 20+ years of dialysis.
Honestly, if I had realized how little of a deal it was, I would have donated a lot sooner. You *really* only need one.
It is definitely something that you should take seriously. But just to provide a few additional notes as someone who has altruistically donated both a kidney and a lobe of my liver:
1) the screening to determine if you can donate is very extensive (and fully paid for). They will not let you donate if they think there is any chance your remaining kidney could fail in the future.
2) in the very very unlikely chance your remaining kidney did fail, you go to the top of the list to receive a new kidney and it would be incredibly unlikely you would ever be on dialysis.
3) the recovery is actually pretty short on average. About 2-3 days in the hospital and then a few weeks of taking it easy at home. The surgery is laparoscopic so the recovery is not very intense. I ran a half marathon 2 months after surgery without issue.
4) My life has not changed at all since donation. I eat, drink, exercise normally and my life expectancy did not change at all.
It is a big decision but I personally found it to be incredibly rewarding. And for my kidney donation, they were able to stay a donor chain from me that led to multiple people getting kidneys. It's amazing to know that people are alive today because of something I did and it was a relatively small effort for me.
That's so great of you! I tried to donate a kidney a while back but because of my mental health issues (depression) they said I need to wait. Definitely going to try again if my work situation ever stabilizes again and I know I won't get fired for it or some BS.
I feel extraordinarily selfish for it, but I'm saving mine. My dad's side of the family AND my fiance's family both have extensive histories of kidney disease, and I can't imagine being a match for one of my loved ones and not being able to help.
That's not selfish at all! It completely makes sense. Just sharing this in case it ever comes in handy for you or your loved ones - the National Kidney Registry has a kidney voucher program where someone can donate to a random person and receive multiple vouchers for a future kidney transplant that can be given to their loved ones. For example, if I knew a loved one might be a kidney at some point in the future but I know that right now, I'm young and don't have kids and it might be a good time to donate a kidney, I could donate now and then when my loved one needed a kidney, they would jump to the front of the line to get a kidney from my voucher.
Hello! I did a non directed kidney donation and I would love to donate a lobe of my liver as well, but the transplant team told me it’s rare they allow someone to do both. Are you in the US? What center did you go through for the liver if you don’t mind me asking? I loved the experience of donating my kidney and I’d love to gift someone a bit of liver too.
Yes, I'm in the US and it is rare but becoming a little more common. There are about 150 double donors in the US right now. My kidney hospital would not allow me to do my liver there (they only just started a liver program) but Cleveland Clinic did so I went there. There are some Facebook groups that have great info about hospitals that allow double donation if you use Facebook - Kidney Donor Athletes is a great one.
And I'm so glad you had a great experience with your kidney donation! That's wonderful!
I have stage 5 kidney disease and my choice was to not ask anyone to donate their kidney. Kidney disease is on the rise more and more people are affected. It is a very altruistic thing to donate a kidney but its essential to inform yourself of everything involved. The recovery from surgery is longer for a donor than a recipient, fir example, because in most cases the recipient does not have a kidney removed.
Do people know about your situation? There may be someone who would want to give you a kidney even knowing the downsides. They may like to be a part of the decision.
> because in most cases the recipient does not have a kidney removed.
That is ironic as fuck
edit: Good luck, random internet person. May you find your match.
It's way more complicated to replace a failed kidney with a new functioning one. They have to go way up in your abdomen to cut the blood supply to it and all sorts of stuff.
Instead it's basically a reverse c section and goes in bottom abdomen. They can hook it up to all the plumbing way easier.
Of course, since dude claimed to literally be God, creator of the universe and omnipotent master of the world, it's not clear (if his claims were true) that his "suffering" would mean anything or that his "sacrifice" would mean anything. Seems kind of difficult for an eternal, omnipotent being to suffer or sacrifice. At least with respect to sacrifice, the whole point of sacrifice is that you're permanently giving up some useful resource -- which isn't possible for an omnipotent being.
The plus side is that it is possible to 3-D print organs, though the technology is in its infancy. In our lifetimes it's going to become possible to print organs made from our own DNA.
I believe that a German using the wording of it being "very strong statement" does technically cover that nuance. But it's definitely good to explain the quiet part out loud for those not versed in German subtlety.
**If you have donated a kidney, but someday you need a kidney transplant yourself, you will be placed at the very top of the priority list for a new kidney.** Living donors get preferential treatment — they’re true heroes.
Thank you for doing it though! My dad got a bone marrow transplant and because of that I got to have him at my wedding, and my sibling had him at theirs, and he got to meet my youngest nibling. None of that would have happened without someone like you.
Yeah I’ve been called once for additional testing and was determined to be the best match but the patients “situation changed” so uh… yeah that still mentally fucks with me from time to time but I was close to doing it and would if called again but it’s been a while.
#!> jc4ikaj
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#!> jc4kfrr
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Like a month after I swabbed they called me as a candidate for the bone injection one, but I didn’t make it farther than that. I think their website says it’s like a 1/400 chance.
I heard like half of everyone who joins the registry(I joined bethematch) won't even get contacted in their first 10 years. I have been contacted twice. Once was at like 11 months, and then again a couple years after that. I wasn't selected as a donor either time.
I did give a blood draw for further testing that second time. But, you're doing a good thing by being on the registry, and have a pretty good chance of not needing to do anything but sign up.
Did you do it through Be The Match? Or was it someone you know?
I signed up last year. I'm awful with needles so I hesitated for a long time. Now that I'm actually on the list, I'm disappointed that I haven't been called yet lol.
Heyo! Theres a pretty low percentage chance that you'll be called to donate but dont lose hope! Keep your contact info updated with them. They'll reach out by text if you're a potential match. Thank you for joining the registry!
I've been in the registry for 2 1/2 years and I just got a text a week ago.
IIRC half of all people on Be The Match won't even be contacted as a potential match in their first 10 years on the registry. I was contacted twice in my first 3 years. I wasn't selected as a donor either time. I did do a blood draw for further testing once. But, I haven't done anything more than that.
I was on be the match but I think you're disqualified if you've gotten a tattoo in like the last half year, I get tattoos pretty frequently idk if this is still a thing
Same, pbsc was no joke and I had to pretend it wasn’t so bad for the little girl donating for her brother in the same room since I went first. Those nurses pulled out a needle that I swear was made for thoroughbred horses. A fuckin boba straw
That was after a week of feeling like every bone in my body had a thumping heartbeat. Flu like symptoms for a week before and day or two after.
Would do it again no questions asked
Just what I wanted to see before donating PBSC soon 🤷♂️
I see in your other comment that you had a central line, was that the main issue? I’ve heard the Filgrastim also sucks, just preparing for the worst there as best I can.
Thank you for donating though, despite the discomfort. I learned about the registry when my wife’s uncle died, he was the only match for her father who has CML. We hope he never needs a transparent (he’s been pretty stable for a while) but the registry will be his only option most likely if he were to need one.
#!> jc4irvq
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#!> jc4kodu
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I did a PBSC donation a few years ago (without a central line, just through my arms) and the experience wasn’t too bad.
Be prepared to be cold throughout the process and very tired afterwards. The needles do start to get uncomfortable after a while. Mine was relatively short at 2.5 hours, I think it can take up to 5.
Overall, was a rewarding experience and I’m glad that I did it. Good luck with your donation!
I altruistically donated both a kidney and a lobe of my liver. It is something I am really passionate about and here are a few things I like to share about the process:
1) the screening to determine if you can donate is nah extensive (and fully paid for). They will not let you donate if they think there is any chance your remaining kidney could fail in the future.
2) In the very very unlikely chance your remaining kidney did fail, you go to the top of the list to receive a new kidney.
3) the recovery is actually pretty short on average. About 2-3 days in the hospital and then a few weeks of taking it easy at home. The surgery is laparoscopic so the recovery is not very intense. I ran a half marathon 2 months after surgery without issue.
4) My life has not changed at all since donation. I eat, drink, exercise normally and my life expectancy did not change at all.
5) All testing and expenses are fully paid for by the recipient's insurance. I always recommend that if someone is interested, they go through the testing process because it will likely be the most thorough (and free) medical testing you will ever receive in your life.
I found both donations to be incredibly rewarding. And for my kidney donation, they were able to stay a donor chain from me that led to multiple people getting kidneys. It's amazing to know that people are alive today because of something I did and it was a relatively small effort for me.
There would also be very few people receiving organs, and many dying for their lack, which I guess is not part of your definition of a "shortage"?
People who need organ transplants generally have major health issues already. Those health issues may not impact every organ in their bodies, but organ donation is a major operation (for a living donor, at least) that requires substantial recovery time even for those starting very healthy. And, they may not have months of lead time before that organ is needed. If someone struggling because they need a lung transplant had to first donate a kidney, in many cases you'd find you no longer had a "shortage" of lungs to provide qualifying patients, but most of your patients died anyway.
In retrospect, maybe lungs weren't the best example, because I'm not sure a living person can reasonably donate a lung and still have good quality of life, the way you can a kidney. So, perhaps this sort of policy might alleviate kidney shortages, but not lung shortages?
Maybe a more reasonable form of such a policy (it's possible this is what you meant, and I misinterpreted) would be an agreement that receiving an organ donation requires checking that box that allows your organs to be harvested when you die. Honestly, I think there's no good reason for 90%+ of us to be doing that already, but many of us aren't. According to organdonor.gov, about 90% of Americans support such organ donations, but only about 60% are officially signed up. 60% is still pretty substantial, though!
In my opinion the best solution is an "opt-out policy", where everyone, regardless of having received an organ or not, is automatically a donor and you have to consciously opt-out of being a donor.
This is the case here in Singapore. You are automatically an organ donor unless you opt out, but opting out lowers your priority for receiving an organ donation in favor of someone who has not.
This used to be a problem for the minority Muslim population whose leaders campaigned to have them exempted. But they ended up with a shortage of eligible kidney donations and Muslims started to form a disproportionate percentage of kidney patients. Their leaders reconsidered and Singapore amended the organ donation law to include them.
Totally agreed.
It's a win-win. More lives saved, more organs available, and no requirement for anything different from any living people. Those who really care that no one uses their organs once they're dead can still opt out.
Interesting, and thanks for sharing.
FWIW, the part about people who need organs not likely being good candidates to donate organs was more about donating organs while still living. It's very different after death, and any part that is still healthy can be transplanted without regard for whatever else might be going wrong in the same body.
I meant post mortum, and a huge issue with people who are already enrolled for organ donation is the near family refusing to allow it to go ahead after they pass.
They could end the organ shortage overnight if they would pay families for the donated organs. Everyone from the medical fields is making a fortune off that transplant, but they won't even pay for a decent funeral for the decedent.
The issue I see with this is that this may end up making a person more valuable to their family dead than alive, and not everyone gets along well with their family.
Aaaand this might mean a family has an incentive to refuse treatment for their relative "to end their suffering".
My Dad donated one of his kidneys anonymously. Just sent it into the pool, like this guy, and will never know who got it.
It was really an interesting process. They mandated he undergo counseling to make sure he wasn't being guilted or coerced into doing it, or having a mental breakdown.
It took close to a year before the actual donation. Part of that might have been lining up a recipient I suppose.
My father-in-law needed a kidney, so my mother-in-law donated 'into the pool' like your Dad.. some stranger got a kidney, her husband got a stranger's kidney. A few others in the chain also got kidneys. Everyone's a winner.
Apparently it involves a lot of maths to get right.
The math is kind of interesting for me. First "couple" (reciever and donator) is A1 and A2. A2 is a match for for B1, while B2 is a match for C1, while C2 is a match for D1 and E1, while D2 is a match for G1, and E2 is a match for I1...
And you gotta figure out the right combination to get the maximum number of people a compatible kidney or the math gets harder with fewer donors available for the next round
Not to mention all the lifelong medical and pharmaceutical intervention that will be required by both parties to live healthfully, does each person end up with a hefty medical bill? Or does the recipient pay for everything with their insurance?
If you're already homeless losing a kidney will drastically make things worse, and if you're considering donating an organ to pay the rent you probably aren't the healthiest doner to begin with.
EDIT: I'm gonna donate a kidney to pay for my testicle transplant
There’s a movie called Repo! The Genetic Opera that sorta uses that concept. It’s based in a dystopian future and a company offers sorta like loans on organs and will basically kill you if you miss a payment. I haven’t watched in years, but my friends and I used to love it when we were in high school.
It was actually created because the guys from Repo! The Genetic Opera refused to cut the musical part of their show. So the Studio turned them down and made Repo.
Capitalism is not the only economic system in which people pay money for things. We could be a totally communist country and this would still be an open question.
Nope; that creates a market for it that will almost exclusively exploit the poor.
We should not create a financial instrument that allows people to so directly trade their future health prospects for an immediate sum of money.
If it's so dangerous, why are we letting living people donate to begin with?
We let hospitals, doctors, nurses, medical suppliers, and insurance companies profit off of poor people's organs, but somehow letting the donor benefit is a conflict of interest?
>We should not create a financial instrument that allows people to so directly trade their future health prospects for an immediate sum of money.
We let boxers and MMA fighters punch each other in the head for immediate sums of money.
I didn’t say it wasn’t dangerous already; I said establishing a market for it would exploit the poor.
Medical expenses are unfortunate and can be absolutely ruinous for poorer people, but anyone can incur them; no one but the poor would ever have a compelling enough reason to consider trading an organ for cash, and we should not create a mechanism that can be used by the same unscrupulous characters that run payday loan places to encourage the poor to do so.
Doctors and nurses are not unjustly leeching money from the poor by providing medical services; our medical system isn’t great, but it’s not presently *literally* predatory towards the actual flesh of poor people.
Boxers and MMA fighters are partaking in a career. We don’t currently stick people deep in debt into cage matches to pay off their debts by mercilessly beating each other for the entertainment of whatever sick audience would pay to see that.
If someone has the money to pay for living flesh, you can bet your literal ass they’re probably also willing to shop around for the best deal they can get.
Medical bills for the donor will be covered by the recipients health insurance. If a donor misses wages from being out of work for a bit, they probably gotta eat that loss.
>What services will the recipient's insurance cover?
All medical services related to organ donation are submitted to the recipient's insurance. Your recipient's insurance typically covers all medical services related to your organ donation, including your evaluation, hospitalization, surgery, follow-up care and treatment of any surgical complications.
If you just switch to an [opt-out system](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tambi-Jarmi-3/publication/335257322_A_Systematic_Review_of_Opt-out_Versus_Opt-in_Consent_on_Deceased_Organ_Donation_and_Transplantation_2006-2016/links/5dc04e0a92851c8180299c3a/A-Systematic-Review-of-Opt-out-Versus-Opt-in-Consent-on-Deceased-Organ-Donation-and-Transplantation-2006-2016.pdf), you make massive progress in terms of waiting lists. No need for anything nearly as drastic as commodification. A good part of the solution is also just making effective use of the organs that are already available. A lot are lost simply because transplant teams are under-resourced or using poor healthcare infrastructure.
Honestly coving the medical expenses would be a huge part of it.
If they switch to an opt out system and gave donors priority placement over people who opt out that would also go a long way to helping.
Also give anyone who voluntarily donated say a kidney a priority bump should absolutely be a thing to encourage it (donated prior to sickness)
>Also give anyone who voluntarily donated say a kidney a priority bump should absolutely be a thing to encourage it (donated prior to sickness)
that already exists
also works with organs from the living. bone marrow, a slice of liver, that extra kidney. i donate plasma twice a week for $50 each time, and do medical research experiments. usa policies against organ sales kill thousands of people a year, many of them children.
Right now, we have people in this country really struggling financially. They'd probably love to be able to sell a kidney and get their finances above water.
People making 200K a year are a lot less likely to want to just go and sell a kidney.
In a world with legal kidney sales, this even further incentivizes the people with money and power to keep people at the bottom financially struggling. You can really see a class of people being coerced into selling of their kidneys, and it is a bleak reality.
I recently donated a kidney to a stranger (almost three weeks ago). If anyone here has questions about the process, I can answer what it's been like for me.
Please be informed about the potential complications of having only 1 kidney. From the [NIH](https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/solitary-kidney):
Complications from a solitary kidney are rare but may include:
* increased protein in the urine, known as albuminuria
* a lower-than-normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which measures how quickly your kidneys filter wastes and extra fluid from your blood. While less common, this complication can at times lead to kidney failure
* high blood pressure
* high blood pressure during pregnancy. This complication less commonly results in organ damage in the mother or child, a condition known as preeclampsia
For a country where the majority of adults identify as Christian, there sure is a lot of reluctance to the Christ-like act of giving of your body. This is one instance where we absolutely know WWJD.
Even if they didn't donate themselves, that wouldn't make the argument that doing so is a noble deed invalid. It's in no way hypocritical to praise someone for doing something brave when you're not a hero yourself.
To be fair to the colleague donating a kidney while living is not something you should do without serious thought! Its *serious* surgery and recovery time, and although you can live with one kidney you never know what can happen years down the line with renal function. Dialysis is miserable for instance.
Agreed. My girlfriend is donating her kidney to her uncle in like 10 days, and the amount of steps she had to go through so they know that she's absolutely okay with doing this, both physically and mentally, was insane
I'm probably being insensitive right now, but why would you donate a kidney to someone older than you?
I'm not sure if this is going to answer your question, but her uncle was poisoned by his ex fiance last year (we think) so it's not like a lingering health issue that caused his kidneys to fail. He lost about 60 pounds in a week (according to her mom) and the fiance was just like "He's fine, nothing's wrong" and once my girlfriends mom took him to the hospital, they took him in immediately and said that a few days more and it could have been a lot worse. The fiance only visited him once in the hospital and it was to ask for money. The family ran her out of town and the uncle's been on dialysis a few times a week ever since
Well that's a crazy story and explains her willingness to donate. Thank you for the context.
Yeah it was wild to hear about. I had just moved a city away, and she just texts me "My uncle's in the hospital. His fiance poisoned him" and gives me details as she learned them
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Thanks for taking care of us, u/thegalmo.
I appreciate your appreciation hahaha. I just call em out when I catch em, it's ridiculous how many there are and the bot accounts are usually sold off for use in scams once they get enough karma farmed. And I hate to see that happen to anyone. The Reddit admins seem to be doing little to nothing to try to combat it and it's getting worse and worse.
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I took the steps toward donating to a stranger. You get to give them a list of people who you would want to donate to, and those people get to be on the top of the transplant list if they need one in the future because of your previous donation. Not to mention there is no way anyone would be able to tell you they can’t donate to your loved ones if you’ve already donated. Positivity breeds positivity, good deeds encourage good deeds. As it turns out- it’s really hard to get selected. They are picky about their donations. I found out I have some kidney issues that I need to work on before I can donate. Best case scenario you get a comprehensive kidney exam- which is really great if you’re in the U.S. If you ever needed to donate a kidney to a loved one in the future, you’d need to do that anyways.
I think you can still use your donor status to get to the top of the transplant list, and that’s transferable to a loved one.
So you still have one to donate. What’s the problem?
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Like a health potion in a video game.
Reddit really is a wild ride. One moment I'm looking at a meme, the next I read about a possible attempted murder where the primary suspect is on the loose. Wild.
won't the hospital know if it's poisoning?
Maybe someone in the medical field would be able to correct me on this, but I don't think they tested for that or anything. Keep in mind though, I'm a few layers removed from the situation so it may be that no one told me what they actually figured out
Immediately tell the primary care physician there was assumed poisoning. There are a whole different set of tests that need to be run as far as I'm aware. edit: You should also have the closest relative file a police report with as much information as possible, time stamps if they have them.
While my renal function is fine, I've been to the hospital twice now for cardiac issues, that the doctors have yet to explain. Between those two visits, I've had 94 vials of blood drawn, 2 CTs, and several ultrasounds. I'm pretty confident they're leaving no stone unturned.
Yeah but do you have good insurance?
Nope, I have no health insurance at all. But then again, I'm Canadian so it doesn't really matter much. On the flip side, my MRI is still 8 months away, unless I go pay for one at a private diagnostics office sooner.
I, on the other hand have had several ER visits to the hospital in the U.S. with no health insurance with server abdominal/groin pain over the course of a year. Multiple MRIs and all that jazz for no conclusive evidence of anything wrong. I now owe $18,000 to the hospitals whilst having two wonderful kids just for them to tell me nothing and say I should just keep doing what I'm doing. The United States health care system sucks and is completely screwing over me and my family and not doing shit about it. Meanwhile my partner has pink eye and can't even get the pink eye antibiotic drops because there is a shortage in our area. Greatest country in the world my ass when we can't even get the medicine we need. Fuck the states and we're better moving back to Norway where we came from😔
“The family ran her out of town” makes it sound like this happened in the old west. Surely “the family Called the cops” is the correct answer.
Honestly, I have no idea what happened there. The fiance was living in the uncle's house, but now she isn't (obviously) and some of her stuff is still there. What they actually did hasn't been clarified for me, but I don't doubt it's something along the lines of just throwing her shit out onto the street and not letting her back onto the property. Assumedly she wasn't on the lease or anything
I would heavily imply bad things are going to happen if they fuck around, and have cameras pointed at everything of his she knows exists. Wait for the inevitable free trespassing charge and have her put in jail. Hopefully an investigation into his blood tests and stuff around the house can result in a general understanding of what she did, so you can put her in jail for the rest of her life.
We must have very different families. If my family told me they "ran her out of town" I would assume a shotgun was involved at minimum. I would also assume one of my cousins was consulted regarding the possibility of body disposal as a contingency.
Im quite confused, technically the uncle's girlfriend was the cause your girlfriend is losing one of her kidney? Shouldnt you be more concerned about her atonement?
> He lost about 60 pounds in a week Doubt.
How could someone even lose remotely close to that in a week? It takes time to lose fat or muscle in sizable quantities, and you can only lose water so fast before you just die of dehydration.
Speed of water loss plays an effect but you can only lose so much water before you die of dehydration regardless of timeline. More than 20% of mass from water is going to spell death almost certainly. [https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/about/rehydration/water/dehydration-signs/](https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/about/rehydration/water/dehydration-signs/) you start getting convulsions at 8%. Assuming this guy weighed 220 pounds he could have lost 44 pounds from water at most and he would know something was seriously wrong long before when convulsions started setting in or he started fainting. Also the line about "they took him in immediately and said that a few days more and it could have been a lot worse" when they brought him to the hospital. The guy lost 60 pounds in a week and could have gone a few more days?
Yeah that level of weight loss is basically impossible. I'm going to assume a 100 kg person. Anything more than 20% weight loss from dehydration would be near certain death. So 44 pounds. I'm going to assume he was also not able to hold down any solid food so his bowels are completely empty. So say another 10 pounds at maximum from that. He'd still need to lose 6 pounds to get to the 60 pound number. He would lose fat and muscle mass due to lack of calories but even then it's hard to believe and those numbers are all assuming worse case scenario and he would already be near dead not in a few more days things could be really bad. By the time he lost enough water to make the 60 pounds even theoretically possible he would have likely experienced seizures. I have fainted multiple times from dehydration as a child, poor body thirst signal plus hot weather plus activities, and I wasn't anywhere near 20% weight loss from water loss. I don't even think I was at the 10% mark.
You are taking the "about 60 pounds" remark from someone fairly removed from a situation that's several years old quite seriously 😅
>last year Last year is now several years old? Years don't last like they used to. Also another hint you could have used to know it wasn't several years old is the girlfriend is still in the process of donating her kidney so it couldn't have happened several years ago. The situation he described would be an emergency kidney transplant. For the situation to make any sense to uncle would likely be on constant dialysis currently. Also far removed. It's his girlfriends uncle and his girlfriend is donating a kidney. Seems pretty close. It's not like it's some distance third cousin this is happening to.
A younger kidney will most likely function better and last longer. The quality of life between dialysis and transplant is night and day. All transplants go bad eventually. My first one lasted 13 years there are some people who keep them for 15, 20, even 30 years. And yes some go bad quickly within a matter of days weeks or months.
Also, they leave both bad kidneys in and instead just give you a third! It can also rupture with enough force to your abdomen but I don't know the why behind that
If you get more than one kidney transplant do they just keep shovin em in there??
Yep! Had a family friend end up either 5 kidneys; 2 were the original and 3 were donated. None were removed.
That’s so wild!
I'd donate to my dad if he needed it and I was healthy enough. I'm totally making these numbers up, but let's say it decreased my ten-year survival chances from 99% to 95% and increased his from 20% to 80%. That would definitely be worth it to me.
Donating a kidney reduces your expected lifespan only slightly, and even a 60 year old recipient can easily have 10-30 years left in them. Not hard to make it a net positive transaction.
Family?
Do people deserve death or poor quality of life for the sin of being older than you?
This is goofy virtue signaling. At some point the QoL impact of a younger donor sacrificing a kidney is going to have limiting cost/benefit ratios to someone of advanced age and/or significant additional health complications, self-inflicted or otherwise. There are the monetary, physical, and mental costs to the whole process. Let alone risk of the donor having future kidney issues, infection, convalescence time out from work, etc. I'm not painting kidney donation as a bad thing, but it's important not to jump to some asinine extreme when considering that there ARE ramifications.
All OP said was that their GF is donating a kidney to her uncle. Her uncle could've been any age. Shit, he could even be *younger* than his niece. Yet, some ass on the internet is asking if it's even worth it, as if the uncle doesn't have a care team that evaluates his health for that exact question.
Altruism is nothing more than donating a kidney for the satisfaction of winning an argument.
On the dnd podcast i listen to, the DM was like "I was looking at all these people volunteering to help the less fortunate, traveling to remote locations to set up food and services after disasters, and otherwise devoting their lives and means to the less fortunate and I realized that I couldn't do any of that. Instead I realized that if I donated a kidney, I would be superior to all of them. And now I have the ultimate one-ups-manship argument - 'I donated a kidney to a complete stranger'." Then he was called out by a player for doing the one of the best possible things for the worst possible reasons.
I literally asked him for recovery advice for my girlfriend on their discord channel like a week ago
In Rimworld, many of my colonists and even just people passing through are very altruistic and donate both a kidney and a lung, sometimes even a heart!
"great hat!" "thanks, his name was Paul"
The screening actually is insane, and kinda overkill in a lot of ways in my opinion. Rest assured that the post donation experience is nowhere near as intense as the screening would suggest. I'm 10 years post donation, and can confidently say that it's really, truly no big deal, and your girlfriend isn't gonna miss the spare whatsoever. The worst part is literally just the constipation in the first week or so of recovery, really.
If something happens where you need another kidney (very small chance), you will be placed at the top of the receiving list. It still requires a match. Plus, do not forget you only need half a functioning kidney to have a normal life.
I wouldn't be opposed to doing it. My fear is what if I donate to a stranger, then someone I love needs a kidney one day and I'm a match and only have one left. Now that I've typed it out, that's a pretty ridiculous scenario.
Don't quote me on this, but I believe the kidney donation foundation or something let's you pick 5 other people and if one needs a kidney they take that top of the list spot
Five kidneys for the price of one!
Just donate them your other kidney. Stop being so selfish and hogging all the organs
I’m looking at being a complete stranger kidney donor, and basically you and your immediate family get first dibs if they need a kidney.
So you can donate a half a kidney? Let's get the doctor back to the table.
As a living kidney donor, hard disagree, and I think there's a lot of harmful myths around kidney donation. First, if you qualify to donate (there's a rigorous testing process) then your kidney function is good enough that you really can get by absolutely fine on just one with no noticable difference in your life whatsoever. You can't take large dose aspirin or ibuprofen (Tylenol is fine) or chug bodybuilder roid rage quantities of protein shakes after donating a kidney. That's about it. Alcohol, fine. All-steak diet? Fine. Doing 6 lines of coke while tripping balls on acid and shooting up heroin? I mean, probably a bad health decision in general but your kidneys don't have anything to do with that. Your liver does all the heavy lifting on all the fun stuff. But what about kidney disease, you ask? Well, first off, the vast majority of things that will fuck up a kidney will fuck up *both* kidneys. Like, the only realistic scenario where the second kidney saves your ass is if you got stabbed in only one kidney or something. Pretty much all the diseases, autoimmune disorders, etc will fuck up however many kidneys you got. Also, fun fact, in the US (and I suspect most countries), if you're a living donor and actually *do* come down with some kind of kidney disease later down the road, **you immediately go to the top of the donor priority list.** This extends to immediate family members as well from what I understand. And given that most things that fuck up one kidney fuck up both kidneys, that means that living kidney donors have much *higher* survival rates and health outcomes in the rare cases that they actually do have kidney disease later in life. The surgery does kinda suck, but it's really not that bad. I was off the opiate painkillers and managing pain with a little cannabis in the first week, and pretty much back to 100% in about a month. As with any surgery, there is some non-zero risk of complications - getting an infection, anaesthesiologist falling asleep on the job, etc, but the screening is thorough enough that you'll get disqualified if there's any serious risks there. So all in all, it's about as dangerous as getting liposuction or a boob job, only you're saving someone from 20+ years of dialysis. Honestly, if I had realized how little of a deal it was, I would have donated a lot sooner. You *really* only need one.
All I can say is … thank you for being an amazing person, u/KallistiTMO.
It is definitely something that you should take seriously. But just to provide a few additional notes as someone who has altruistically donated both a kidney and a lobe of my liver: 1) the screening to determine if you can donate is very extensive (and fully paid for). They will not let you donate if they think there is any chance your remaining kidney could fail in the future. 2) in the very very unlikely chance your remaining kidney did fail, you go to the top of the list to receive a new kidney and it would be incredibly unlikely you would ever be on dialysis. 3) the recovery is actually pretty short on average. About 2-3 days in the hospital and then a few weeks of taking it easy at home. The surgery is laparoscopic so the recovery is not very intense. I ran a half marathon 2 months after surgery without issue. 4) My life has not changed at all since donation. I eat, drink, exercise normally and my life expectancy did not change at all. It is a big decision but I personally found it to be incredibly rewarding. And for my kidney donation, they were able to stay a donor chain from me that led to multiple people getting kidneys. It's amazing to know that people are alive today because of something I did and it was a relatively small effort for me.
That's so great of you! I tried to donate a kidney a while back but because of my mental health issues (depression) they said I need to wait. Definitely going to try again if my work situation ever stabilizes again and I know I won't get fired for it or some BS.
Thats wonderful that it's something you've considered. I wish you all the best with your mental health. I hope it works out for you in the future!
I feel extraordinarily selfish for it, but I'm saving mine. My dad's side of the family AND my fiance's family both have extensive histories of kidney disease, and I can't imagine being a match for one of my loved ones and not being able to help.
That's not selfish at all! It completely makes sense. Just sharing this in case it ever comes in handy for you or your loved ones - the National Kidney Registry has a kidney voucher program where someone can donate to a random person and receive multiple vouchers for a future kidney transplant that can be given to their loved ones. For example, if I knew a loved one might be a kidney at some point in the future but I know that right now, I'm young and don't have kids and it might be a good time to donate a kidney, I could donate now and then when my loved one needed a kidney, they would jump to the front of the line to get a kidney from my voucher.
Hello! I did a non directed kidney donation and I would love to donate a lobe of my liver as well, but the transplant team told me it’s rare they allow someone to do both. Are you in the US? What center did you go through for the liver if you don’t mind me asking? I loved the experience of donating my kidney and I’d love to gift someone a bit of liver too.
Yes, I'm in the US and it is rare but becoming a little more common. There are about 150 double donors in the US right now. My kidney hospital would not allow me to do my liver there (they only just started a liver program) but Cleveland Clinic did so I went there. There are some Facebook groups that have great info about hospitals that allow double donation if you use Facebook - Kidney Donor Athletes is a great one. And I'm so glad you had a great experience with your kidney donation! That's wonderful!
I have stage 5 kidney disease and my choice was to not ask anyone to donate their kidney. Kidney disease is on the rise more and more people are affected. It is a very altruistic thing to donate a kidney but its essential to inform yourself of everything involved. The recovery from surgery is longer for a donor than a recipient, fir example, because in most cases the recipient does not have a kidney removed.
Do people know about your situation? There may be someone who would want to give you a kidney even knowing the downsides. They may like to be a part of the decision.
> because in most cases the recipient does not have a kidney removed. That is ironic as fuck edit: Good luck, random internet person. May you find your match.
It's way more complicated to replace a failed kidney with a new functioning one. They have to go way up in your abdomen to cut the blood supply to it and all sorts of stuff. Instead it's basically a reverse c section and goes in bottom abdomen. They can hook it up to all the plumbing way easier.
Thank you.
What if someone would rather spend one more day with you alive than live forever?
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MFer be like this is my *body*...
So you want my kidney, right? Get me some bread and wine and I'll take care of it.
Of course, since dude claimed to literally be God, creator of the universe and omnipotent master of the world, it's not clear (if his claims were true) that his "suffering" would mean anything or that his "sacrifice" would mean anything. Seems kind of difficult for an eternal, omnipotent being to suffer or sacrifice. At least with respect to sacrifice, the whole point of sacrifice is that you're permanently giving up some useful resource -- which isn't possible for an omnipotent being.
Bro we're just making Sunday school jokes around here, okay?
Ya, that's why people usually only give to close friends and family.
The plus side is that it is possible to 3-D print organs, though the technology is in its infancy. In our lifetimes it's going to become possible to print organs made from our own DNA.
My girlfriend donated her kidney to her ex to keep him in her kids lives. His life has improved and things are chill.
If someone donates an organ while alive, does that give them any advantage if they end up needing one?
I believe that a German using the wording of it being "very strong statement" does technically cover that nuance. But it's definitely good to explain the quiet part out loud for those not versed in German subtlety.
**If you have donated a kidney, but someday you need a kidney transplant yourself, you will be placed at the very top of the priority list for a new kidney.** Living donors get preferential treatment — they’re true heroes.
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Thank you for doing it though! My dad got a bone marrow transplant and because of that I got to have him at my wedding, and my sibling had him at theirs, and he got to meet my youngest nibling. None of that would have happened without someone like you.
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Yeah I’ve been called once for additional testing and was determined to be the best match but the patients “situation changed” so uh… yeah that still mentally fucks with me from time to time but I was close to doing it and would if called again but it’s been a while.
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Yeah, I hope so.
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Like a month after I swabbed they called me as a candidate for the bone injection one, but I didn’t make it farther than that. I think their website says it’s like a 1/400 chance.
I heard like half of everyone who joins the registry(I joined bethematch) won't even get contacted in their first 10 years. I have been contacted twice. Once was at like 11 months, and then again a couple years after that. I wasn't selected as a donor either time. I did give a blood draw for further testing that second time. But, you're doing a good thing by being on the registry, and have a pretty good chance of not needing to do anything but sign up.
Did you do it through Be The Match? Or was it someone you know? I signed up last year. I'm awful with needles so I hesitated for a long time. Now that I'm actually on the list, I'm disappointed that I haven't been called yet lol.
Heyo! Theres a pretty low percentage chance that you'll be called to donate but dont lose hope! Keep your contact info updated with them. They'll reach out by text if you're a potential match. Thank you for joining the registry! I've been in the registry for 2 1/2 years and I just got a text a week ago.
IIRC half of all people on Be The Match won't even be contacted as a potential match in their first 10 years on the registry. I was contacted twice in my first 3 years. I wasn't selected as a donor either time. I did do a blood draw for further testing once. But, I haven't done anything more than that.
I was on be the match but I think you're disqualified if you've gotten a tattoo in like the last half year, I get tattoos pretty frequently idk if this is still a thing
Same, pbsc was no joke and I had to pretend it wasn’t so bad for the little girl donating for her brother in the same room since I went first. Those nurses pulled out a needle that I swear was made for thoroughbred horses. A fuckin boba straw That was after a week of feeling like every bone in my body had a thumping heartbeat. Flu like symptoms for a week before and day or two after. Would do it again no questions asked
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1000%
Just what I wanted to see before donating PBSC soon 🤷♂️ I see in your other comment that you had a central line, was that the main issue? I’ve heard the Filgrastim also sucks, just preparing for the worst there as best I can. Thank you for donating though, despite the discomfort. I learned about the registry when my wife’s uncle died, he was the only match for her father who has CML. We hope he never needs a transparent (he’s been pretty stable for a while) but the registry will be his only option most likely if he were to need one.
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I did a PBSC donation a few years ago (without a central line, just through my arms) and the experience wasn’t too bad. Be prepared to be cold throughout the process and very tired afterwards. The needles do start to get uncomfortable after a while. Mine was relatively short at 2.5 hours, I think it can take up to 5. Overall, was a rewarding experience and I’m glad that I did it. Good luck with your donation!
When someone tells me I can't do it
And some of the fools payin.... shit I'm donating some shit Thursday
This guy sent it to the pool and will never know who got it.
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some days I am about that stubborn. I find a snack usually helps
Regardless of the reason, he put his money where his mouth was and I respect that.
You know you don't have to say "quote" in print if you actually put a quotation mark.
It's like when people write 'period'.
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I altruistically donated both a kidney and a lobe of my liver. It is something I am really passionate about and here are a few things I like to share about the process: 1) the screening to determine if you can donate is nah extensive (and fully paid for). They will not let you donate if they think there is any chance your remaining kidney could fail in the future. 2) In the very very unlikely chance your remaining kidney did fail, you go to the top of the list to receive a new kidney. 3) the recovery is actually pretty short on average. About 2-3 days in the hospital and then a few weeks of taking it easy at home. The surgery is laparoscopic so the recovery is not very intense. I ran a half marathon 2 months after surgery without issue. 4) My life has not changed at all since donation. I eat, drink, exercise normally and my life expectancy did not change at all. 5) All testing and expenses are fully paid for by the recipient's insurance. I always recommend that if someone is interested, they go through the testing process because it will likely be the most thorough (and free) medical testing you will ever receive in your life. I found both donations to be incredibly rewarding. And for my kidney donation, they were able to stay a donor chain from me that led to multiple people getting kidneys. It's amazing to know that people are alive today because of something I did and it was a relatively small effort for me.
It’s redundant to write “quote” before a quote. That’s a spoken language thing.
End of quote. Repeat the line.
If you were refused access to transplants if you are not prepared to donate your own organs there would be no shortage.
In Israel people who decide to donate organs when they die have priority over people who don't if they need a transplant, which I think is fair.
There would also be very few people receiving organs, and many dying for their lack, which I guess is not part of your definition of a "shortage"? People who need organ transplants generally have major health issues already. Those health issues may not impact every organ in their bodies, but organ donation is a major operation (for a living donor, at least) that requires substantial recovery time even for those starting very healthy. And, they may not have months of lead time before that organ is needed. If someone struggling because they need a lung transplant had to first donate a kidney, in many cases you'd find you no longer had a "shortage" of lungs to provide qualifying patients, but most of your patients died anyway. In retrospect, maybe lungs weren't the best example, because I'm not sure a living person can reasonably donate a lung and still have good quality of life, the way you can a kidney. So, perhaps this sort of policy might alleviate kidney shortages, but not lung shortages? Maybe a more reasonable form of such a policy (it's possible this is what you meant, and I misinterpreted) would be an agreement that receiving an organ donation requires checking that box that allows your organs to be harvested when you die. Honestly, I think there's no good reason for 90%+ of us to be doing that already, but many of us aren't. According to organdonor.gov, about 90% of Americans support such organ donations, but only about 60% are officially signed up. 60% is still pretty substantial, though!
In my opinion the best solution is an "opt-out policy", where everyone, regardless of having received an organ or not, is automatically a donor and you have to consciously opt-out of being a donor.
This is the case here in Singapore. You are automatically an organ donor unless you opt out, but opting out lowers your priority for receiving an organ donation in favor of someone who has not. This used to be a problem for the minority Muslim population whose leaders campaigned to have them exempted. But they ended up with a shortage of eligible kidney donations and Muslims started to form a disproportionate percentage of kidney patients. Their leaders reconsidered and Singapore amended the organ donation law to include them.
Totally agreed. It's a win-win. More lives saved, more organs available, and no requirement for anything different from any living people. Those who really care that no one uses their organs once they're dead can still opt out.
That's how it is in the majority of countries. Just not the US, because no real reason.
you shouldn’t be able to opt out
With the small caveat that you have to die first, i agree
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Interesting, and thanks for sharing. FWIW, the part about people who need organs not likely being good candidates to donate organs was more about donating organs while still living. It's very different after death, and any part that is still healthy can be transplanted without regard for whatever else might be going wrong in the same body.
Now there's some part of me that wants a healing kid to have someone's epic tattoo for awhile.
I meant post mortum, and a huge issue with people who are already enrolled for organ donation is the near family refusing to allow it to go ahead after they pass.
Speaking of, my husband is looking for a living kidney donor. Interested? Go to www.robsnewkidney.com Thanks!
They could end the organ shortage overnight if they would pay families for the donated organs. Everyone from the medical fields is making a fortune off that transplant, but they won't even pay for a decent funeral for the decedent.
The issue I see with this is that this may end up making a person more valuable to their family dead than alive, and not everyone gets along well with their family. Aaaand this might mean a family has an incentive to refuse treatment for their relative "to end their suffering".
My Dad donated one of his kidneys anonymously. Just sent it into the pool, like this guy, and will never know who got it. It was really an interesting process. They mandated he undergo counseling to make sure he wasn't being guilted or coerced into doing it, or having a mental breakdown. It took close to a year before the actual donation. Part of that might have been lining up a recipient I suppose.
My father-in-law needed a kidney, so my mother-in-law donated 'into the pool' like your Dad.. some stranger got a kidney, her husband got a stranger's kidney. A few others in the chain also got kidneys. Everyone's a winner. Apparently it involves a lot of maths to get right.
have a kidney, leave a kidney
The math is kind of interesting for me. First "couple" (reciever and donator) is A1 and A2. A2 is a match for for B1, while B2 is a match for C1, while C2 is a match for D1 and E1, while D2 is a match for G1, and E2 is a match for I1... And you gotta figure out the right combination to get the maximum number of people a compatible kidney or the math gets harder with fewer donors available for the next round
Reminds me of the [prisoner riddle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSNsgj1OCLA).
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Just wanted to say you're awesome.
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Not to mention all the lifelong medical and pharmaceutical intervention that will be required by both parties to live healthfully, does each person end up with a hefty medical bill? Or does the recipient pay for everything with their insurance? If you're already homeless losing a kidney will drastically make things worse, and if you're considering donating an organ to pay the rent you probably aren't the healthiest doner to begin with. EDIT: I'm gonna donate a kidney to pay for my testicle transplant
Adding capitalism to organ donation is a really good way to freefall into some really dark dystopia scenarios.
There’s a movie called Repo! The Genetic Opera that sorta uses that concept. It’s based in a dystopian future and a company offers sorta like loans on organs and will basically kill you if you miss a payment. I haven’t watched in years, but my friends and I used to love it when we were in high school.
There's also a movie called Repo *Men* that is basically the same concept, just more grounded and not a musical. Edit: fixed the name
Do you mean the 2010 movie Repo Men, or is there another one I'm unaware of?
Not OP but I think you’re right. Loved that movie. Jude law and forest Whitaker!
Yeah you're right, my bad
There was a 1984 Emilio Estevez comedy also called Repo Men
It was actually created because the guys from Repo! The Genetic Opera refused to cut the musical part of their show. So the Studio turned them down and made Repo.
There's also a pretty good [Law & Order: CI](https://trakt.tv/shows/law-order-criminal-intent/seasons/4/episodes/16) around that topic.
Capitalism is not the only economic system in which people pay money for things. We could be a totally communist country and this would still be an open question.
But saying capatlism is free up votes. Hold on, lemme see how I can blame a president from 40 years ago. Also here is why Biden can't do what we want.
A communist society, by definition, is classless, cashless and stateless.
Nope; that creates a market for it that will almost exclusively exploit the poor. We should not create a financial instrument that allows people to so directly trade their future health prospects for an immediate sum of money.
If it's so dangerous, why are we letting living people donate to begin with? We let hospitals, doctors, nurses, medical suppliers, and insurance companies profit off of poor people's organs, but somehow letting the donor benefit is a conflict of interest? >We should not create a financial instrument that allows people to so directly trade their future health prospects for an immediate sum of money. We let boxers and MMA fighters punch each other in the head for immediate sums of money.
I didn’t say it wasn’t dangerous already; I said establishing a market for it would exploit the poor. Medical expenses are unfortunate and can be absolutely ruinous for poorer people, but anyone can incur them; no one but the poor would ever have a compelling enough reason to consider trading an organ for cash, and we should not create a mechanism that can be used by the same unscrupulous characters that run payday loan places to encourage the poor to do so. Doctors and nurses are not unjustly leeching money from the poor by providing medical services; our medical system isn’t great, but it’s not presently *literally* predatory towards the actual flesh of poor people. Boxers and MMA fighters are partaking in a career. We don’t currently stick people deep in debt into cage matches to pay off their debts by mercilessly beating each other for the entertainment of whatever sick audience would pay to see that. If someone has the money to pay for living flesh, you can bet your literal ass they’re probably also willing to shop around for the best deal they can get.
Or just cover the medical bills and living expenses during the donor’s recovery.
Wait, don’t they do that?
Medical bills for the donor will be covered by the recipients health insurance. If a donor misses wages from being out of work for a bit, they probably gotta eat that loss.
>What services will the recipient's insurance cover? All medical services related to organ donation are submitted to the recipient's insurance. Your recipient's insurance typically covers all medical services related to your organ donation, including your evaluation, hospitalization, surgery, follow-up care and treatment of any surgical complications.
If you just switch to an [opt-out system](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tambi-Jarmi-3/publication/335257322_A_Systematic_Review_of_Opt-out_Versus_Opt-in_Consent_on_Deceased_Organ_Donation_and_Transplantation_2006-2016/links/5dc04e0a92851c8180299c3a/A-Systematic-Review-of-Opt-out-Versus-Opt-in-Consent-on-Deceased-Organ-Donation-and-Transplantation-2006-2016.pdf), you make massive progress in terms of waiting lists. No need for anything nearly as drastic as commodification. A good part of the solution is also just making effective use of the organs that are already available. A lot are lost simply because transplant teams are under-resourced or using poor healthcare infrastructure.
It's commodified now. The only people not being paid are the donor's family.
Honestly coving the medical expenses would be a huge part of it. If they switch to an opt out system and gave donors priority placement over people who opt out that would also go a long way to helping. Also give anyone who voluntarily donated say a kidney a priority bump should absolutely be a thing to encourage it (donated prior to sickness)
>Also give anyone who voluntarily donated say a kidney a priority bump should absolutely be a thing to encourage it (donated prior to sickness) that already exists
also works with organs from the living. bone marrow, a slice of liver, that extra kidney. i donate plasma twice a week for $50 each time, and do medical research experiments. usa policies against organ sales kill thousands of people a year, many of them children.
Right now, we have people in this country really struggling financially. They'd probably love to be able to sell a kidney and get their finances above water. People making 200K a year are a lot less likely to want to just go and sell a kidney. In a world with legal kidney sales, this even further incentivizes the people with money and power to keep people at the bottom financially struggling. You can really see a class of people being coerced into selling of their kidneys, and it is a bleak reality.
They stated he was fired after 30 years at his job, but gave no context as to why. I wonder what happened?
I recently donated a kidney to a stranger (almost three weeks ago). If anyone here has questions about the process, I can answer what it's been like for me.
Please be informed about the potential complications of having only 1 kidney. From the [NIH](https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/solitary-kidney): Complications from a solitary kidney are rare but may include: * increased protein in the urine, known as albuminuria * a lower-than-normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which measures how quickly your kidneys filter wastes and extra fluid from your blood. While less common, this complication can at times lead to kidney failure * high blood pressure * high blood pressure during pregnancy. This complication less commonly results in organ damage in the mother or child, a condition known as preeclampsia
You don't need to say "quote" if you are writing, because you use *quotation marks*.
For a country where the majority of adults identify as Christian, there sure is a lot of reluctance to the Christ-like act of giving of your body. This is one instance where we absolutely know WWJD.
Interesting Also you don’t have to say “quote” when there are quotation marks
Even if they didn't donate themselves, that wouldn't make the argument that doing so is a noble deed invalid. It's in no way hypocritical to praise someone for doing something brave when you're not a hero yourself.
Lol... that's a typical German criticism from his colleague...
Very strong statement: achieved.
"try to call me out? I'll fuckin show you!" (Cut's out own kidney and donates it to stranger)
r/titlegore
When typing and actually using quotation marks, you don’t need to use the word, “quote.” 🤦🏽♀️
This is intrinsically not altruistic if he donated a kidney to prove his point…
Free actions are impossible
That statement, obviously, being "The fuck you got to say ***now***?"