As my readers know, Kennan was an organ/tissue donor and my family’s experience with that process has helped ease the pain of our  loss.  I hope Frank’s post below and Kennan and my experience outlined in the article that appeared in the Post last year will encourage readers to discuss donation with their loved ones.   Hopefully it will remain an academic discussion for my readers, but, if not,  our experience has shown that grief is eased by knowing your suffering has been able to help others.—Libby

by Guest Blogger Frank Sietzen, Jr.

In today’s America it is a silent epidemic affecting nearly ten percent of the population. In the African-American and Latino communities it is an unseen and little discussed shadow that shortens life spans and careers, complicates lives, and destroys families. I’m talking about kidney failure and the consequences and complications it brings.  In the greater Washington, DC area kidney disease in adults is 24 times the national average, evading medical science’s understanding of the cause. Is it caused by Diabetes, or hypertension, or obesity? Whatever the reason, it is a disease without a cure, leaving only three avenues for the patient. One is trice-weekly dialysis, done in a clinic or hospital; the other a similar treatment done by a smaller machine at the patient’s home. Ultimately, though, the best solution for failing kidneys is to get a new one, either from a friendly donor that matches you, or from a cadaver whose kidneys become available.

There is, though, just one problem with this: and that is the demand for matchable and working kidneys far outstrips the availability. The great question, it seems to me, is why? In America, unlike Europe, the public looks queasily upon organ donation. The complex system of registry offers donors no subsidy, and a living donor is subjected to a week’s worth of tests that must be done here at the hospital that is to conduct the actual transplant operation. Depending on where the donor lives, the cost of a week in a hotel room plus the cost of airfare to get here and the lost week of work all quickly adds up. And people wonder why more don’t donate? Even the process of making your organs available after death is complicated. So until the system is reformed, and some remuneration created to entice donors, people like me must wait years for a cadaver’s matchable kidney. There is one option available to virtually everyone that can vastly increase the pool of donors. When you renew or get a driver’s license in the Commonwealth, there is a check off box in which you can list yourself as an organ donor. Painless, simple and easy. Why more folks don’t take advantage of this is a mystery to me.

Some two and a half years ago, I submitted to the process that leads to my name going on the transplant list. I spent most of a day getting poked, prodded, and having 12 samples of blood taken for analysis and registry. Once completed, a potential recipient is rated based on the genetic composition that makes a match easy or more difficult. The easier you are, the easier it would be for a cadaver to match you. Then each year a stress test is done to make sure I could survive an operation. And every month, I must take and send to the hospital that is my primary designee for the operation a sample of blood. All of this stuff is up to me, the patient, to do. In my case, I had two friends who wanted to donate a kidney to me. One was found to have cardiac problems, and thus eliminated. The other discovered that he had kidney problems himself, previously undetected, another case for elimination. So I wait, and wait, and wait some more. At this rate, I’d even accept a Republican kidney!

The only consolation is that there are hundreds in the same boat as me here and thousands more across the country. Until a way is found to increase donations, help people understand that there are easy ways to become donors after your death, or provide some system of compensation for living donors, hurry up and wait is the tune of the day.