Recent studies show that minorities in the United States are especially vulnerable to kidney failure. In fact, U.S. minorities are two to four times more likely to develop end stage renal disease than non-minorities, according to a study published in a recent edition of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Cecilia Livingston from Franklin, Ind., is one of those people.
After years of struggling with diabetes, Livingston realized her kidney was failing. She was on dialysis and felt drained. On some days, she could barely move.
“I didn’t have enough energy to check the mailbox at the end of my driveway,” she said.
Sadly, Cecilia wasn’t the first person in her family to suffer from organ failure. “My mom’s kidneys failed years ago and I used to take her in for medical treatments,” she recalled. “Little did I know that I would one day end up in the same situation.”
Cecilia was referred to the doctors and clinical teams at Indiana University Health who evaluated her condition and eventually recommended a kidney transplant.
New kidneys come from two primary sources: an individual can wait for an available kidney from a deceased donor, which based on high demand, can take a few years or they can try to secure an organ much sooner by finding a living kidney donor that is a good match. However, kidney transplants from living donors are generally more successful and usually last longer than a deceased donor kidney, some up to 30 years.
Cecilia’s family members went through a series of tests to determine if any of them were a match. Her husband, David Livingston, was a suitable donor but tests found his blood type wasn’t compatible. Cecilia’s 24-year-old son was a match, but, unfortunately, his own diabetes-related health issues prevented him from becoming a donor.
However, all was not lost. There was another option that could speed up the process to find a new kidney for Cecilia: a paired donor exchange.
Paired donor exchange was created to help individuals in Cecilia’s position – people that have potential donors on standby, that just so happen to be incompatible with the intended recipient.
In its simplest form, a paired donor exchange works like this: an incompatible donor/recipient pair is connected with a similar pair, so that the recipient in the second pair is a match with the donor in the first pair. The result: willing donors are hooked up with recipients in need, and each recipient gets a new, healthy kidney.
Knowing those on dialysis typically have half the life expectancy of someone who receives a kidney transplant, the IU Health Transplant team worked with the Alliance for Paired Donation (APD) to help Cecilia find a kidney.
The APD is an Ohio-based group that coordinates with organizations and hospitals across the country to connect potential kidney donors and compatible recipients for paired donations. The Livingstons were connected to the APD’s 200 pairs of individuals who planned to participate in a kidney chain or circle to find donor matches.
After a few attempts involving potential donors that backed out at the last minute, a successful arrangement was made involving a collaboration between three transplant centers, each in different states. Thanks to this coordination of care, Cecilia was able to get the kidney she needed sooner rather than later.
Earlier this year, arrangements were made for Cecilia to travel to Cincinnati for a six-hour operation to transplant her new kidney from a living donor. A month later, in keeping with his end of the bargain, her husband David went into surgery at IU Health University Hospital to have his kidney removed and sent to a patient in Baltimore, Md.
“Without the Alliance for Paired Donation, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Dr. Tim Taber, a transplant nephrologist and medical director for IU Health’s kidney transplant program. “The Livingston’s story is a great example of the lengths we will go to in order to ensure our patients get the organs they need.”
And her husband is especially grateful. “The biggest thing, more than anything else, is that now she has her energy level back,” said David.
Cecilia agreed. “Now, I can get up in the morning and say, ‘Hey, let’s take a walk,’ and actually have the energy to do it.”
If you’re interested in donating a kidney, or would like more information about IU Health Transplant, call (317) 944-4370 or 1-800-382-4602 and visit www.iuhealth.org/transplant.
‘Share the spare’ program
Since 2005, Indiana University Health has completed nearly 600 living-donor kidney transplants.
As the home to the nation’s fourth largest transplant center, IU Health performs more than 500 solid-organ transplants each year. Of that number, nearly half are kidney transplants, and more than 100 of those involve living donors, individuals that make the decision to “share their spare” in order to secure a healthy kidney for loved ones or, in some cases, complete strangers.
“The fact that we perform so many surgeries means we have firsthand experience with both common and complicated transplant procedures,” said Dr. Tim Taber, transplant nephrologist and medical director for IU Health’s kidney transplant program.
More than 1,000 Hoosiers are waiting for new kidneys.
