Who pays for the medical costs?

The medical costs (does not include hotel accommodations, travel, or time lost from work) associated with your evaluation as an organ donor (and surgery-related expenses if you become a donor) are covered by the recipient’s primary insurance. If you donate a kidney, you will be monitored for complications related to the surgery for up to two years through the recipient’s insurance. Routine health care will revert to your insurance provider.

Who is the ideal donor?

The optimal living donor is close to their ideal body weight, has a normal blood pressure without medication, and has no major medical illnesses.

How do I start the process of becoming a kidney donor?

The first step in the donor evaluation is to complete the Donor Questionnaire and have your blood drawn to test for compatibility with the recipient. Contact Linda or her Living Donor Coordinator for the questionnaire.

After the initial testing, one candidate will be chosen for further evaluation. Tests may include routine blood tests, HIV, Hepatitis Series, chest x-ray, EKG, CT scan, and consultation with the living donor transplant coordinator and social worker.

Is it safe to be a donor?

As with any medical procedure, you should consult with your own medical providers and family. Overall, long term studies (15 years) show that donors do well over time, but the true lifetime risk is unknown.

Do you shorten your life by donating a kidney?

Donating a kidney does not affect a person’s life expectancy. On the contrary, studies show that people who donate a kidney outlive the average population. Twenty years after donating, 85 percent of kidney donors were still alive, while the expected survival rate was 66 percent.

Is kidney donation hard on the donor?

You can live with just one healthy kidney. Your remaining kidney will be able to do most of the work of both of your kidneys. It is rare to have long-term physical problems from donating a kidney. But people with one kidney may have a higher chance of high blood pressure, which doctors may treat with medicine.

What is the surgery and how is it performed?

There are two ways a kidney can be removed (nephrectomy). 

• Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy is the most common technique. This allows the removal of the kidney through a few relatively small incisions.
• Open Nephrectomy may be recommended based on the donor’s anatomy or other characteristics.
• In the US, there are more than 20,000 kidney transplants each year or approximately 55 transplants per day.

How long does it take to recover from a kidney donation?

The usual hospital stay is two to three days, with a potential to return to work in three to four weeks. The amount of pain from the incisions and bloating that occurs after the surgery is typically less in patients that undergo the laparoscopic procedure. 

Linda’s Medical Center:

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is the largest kidney transplant center in North Carolina and performs a kidney transplant, on average, every 36-48 hours. They have a multi-disciplinary transplant team with over 60 full-time team members (physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, social workers, etc.) They are also one of the top ten transplant programs in the US. Since 1999, Atrium Health WFB has helped more people living with a functioning kidney transplant than any other transplant center in NC.