Donor Diaries
Donor Diaries is a podcast that delves into the beauty and complexity of living organ donation. Tune in to hear extraordinary stories of people who choose to share their organs and give the gift of life. The world of kidney and organ donation is a powerful testament to kindness, love, and the human spirit.
With over 90,000 individuals on the kidney transplant waitlist and about 13 people dying each day while waiting, the urgency is real. One in three Americans is at risk for chronic kidney disease, and one in nine already suffers from it, often unknowingly.
Donor Diaries offers unfiltered narratives from living donors and candid insights from transplant experts, aiming to elevate the conversation around organ donation. Our goal is to bring this crucial issue to the forefront, so no patient has to wait in vain or suffer needlessly.
Donor Diaries
Transcending Borders: International Kidney Exchange with Dr. Satish Nadig | EP 21
There’s a wide range of reasons why kidney transplant is available to some, but not all. Imagine the lives that could be saved worldwide if we organized a globally inclusive kidney exchange. What could be possible if we could break down borders and share kidneys with other countries?
Meet Dr. Satish Nadig, Chief of Transplant, and the Director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He’s an innovator and visionary, and in this episode, we get to pick his brain to learn about Northwestern and the small network of Transplant Centers pioneering an effort to increase transplants through international kidney exchange.
Kidney failure is a global problem and is among the leading causes of death worldwide. The kidney shortage is not a problem unique to the United States although it’s perpetuated here by the high occurrence of diabetes and high blood pressure.
The barriers to transplant in economically developed countries are different from those in developing countries, but regardless, kidney failure in both rich and poor countries is sadly a death sentence for many. Barriers to patients receiving a kidney transplant should be identified and removed.
All kidney patients benefit from having access to a large pool of kidney donors. The bigger the pool, the higher the likelihood of finding a good donor match. This is especially important for hard to match patients that have high levels of HLA antibodies. It’s just statistically more difficult for these patients to find a match.
But many people who need a kidney transplant live in a small country where the pool of donors is small or worse, they might live in a country that doesn’t even have a transplant center. Other kidney patients might live in a country with restrictions that only allow a direct blood relative to donate- having a friend or stranger donate to them isn’t an option like it is in the United States. And in some countries, it’s possible to get a transplant, but paired exchanges are not allowed which really limits the patient’s options and access to transplant.
Join Laurie Lee and Dr. Nadig to learn about the future of International Kidney Exchange at Northwestern Medicine and hear some inspiring stories about the lives already being saved as we start to eliminate the artificial barriers between country lines.
Links:
Northwestern Medicine Organ Transplantation Program: Quality, Innovation, Education
Northwestern Comprehensive Transplant Center
Dr. Satish Nadig Profile
Experimental Strategies in Organ Transplantation with Satish Nadig
Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation
Al Roth on Global Kidney Exchange and More
Global Kidney Exchange: opportunity or exploitation?
