Living donor first — that’s the .
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When someone needs a kidney or liver transplant, they could wait years before they get a call, if they even get one at all. A new program just launched in Virginia is aiming to increase the number of living donors that can help patients get the transplants they need sooner.
“It’s putting the concept of living donor right up front, so that when patients come in, it’s in the forefront of their mind,” said Dr. Shawn Pelletier, director of the transplant service line and chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at U.Va. Health.
He said their new program, “Living Donor First,” aims to educate patients and the public about the option of living donors and the benefits to patients.
They have new signs and pamphlets to inform patients of their options, and they have people ready to assist anyone needing any direction about the process on finding a living donor.
For kidney patients, living donors are “almost always the best option. The potential recipient doesn’t have to wait on the list for a deceased donor, that might take four to seven years,” he said.
And for liver transplant patients?
“You have to wait till you’re the sickest person on the list, and that’s obviously not the best strategy to plan a big operation,” he said.
He said anyone — family, friends and strangers — can be living donors.
“You don’t even necessarily have to be compatible or the same blood type,” he said. “We really want everyone thinking of, you know, the potential of being a living donor, and the fact that by doing this, you are literally saving someone’s life.”
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