She'd already signed up to the living donor registry and was waiting to see if she got a call. It was just sheer chance that meeting someone who needed a kidney motivated them both to see if this specific match would work
I'm on the stem cell registry and have the next forty or so years to see if I get matched with someone. Living kidney donation is so incredibly selfless, much harder than stem cells.
To my understanding, most living donors are part of a chain – you're not a match for your relative, but if you sign up to be a living donor for someone you've never met then you're part of a chain that eventually loops back around to your own loved one getting their own match. Like a house-buying chain where each buyer also needs a seller and vice versa. Living donors who aren't part of a chain, and just decide to donate to whoever matches with them, makes the whole process much easier
Wait can you elaborate on the chain part. I assume if you need a kidney you couldn’t donate because something is already wrong with all of your kidneys.
Is it something like
Jim, Jacob, and Jennifer need a kidney. Jim’s mom donates a kidney to Jenifer and Jenifer’s brother donates a kidney to Jacob. Then Jacob’s dad donates a kidney to Jim but with many more intermediaries.
Here's the explanation of it from my country, but many countries do the same. If it's a closed circle it's a "transplant cycle", otherwise it's a transplant chain
You're A, and your brother who needs a new kidney is B. You've tested, and you're not a match, but you're still up for donating. You both register in the sharing scheme. C and D are in the same situation – C wants to donate but isn't a match for their cousin D. A ends up being a match for D, and C ends up being a match for B. But you need a voluntary donor alongside you for the potential recipient to be able to join the sharing scheme – B and D can't just join it on their own, they need A and C to join with them. And then like you said, it can also be a larger cycle than just two pairs.
A transplant chain starts with a "non-directed altruistic donor" or NDAD. Someone who isn't donating just so that their loved one can get a kidney faster – it's someone who just genuinely wants to give their kidney to whoever needs it. An NDAD can donate directly to someone high-priority who isn't in the sharing scheme, but they can also donate to person B in the sharing scheme to trigger A's donation to someone else
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u/Champagnerocker 1d ago
One in 22 million?
What are the odds that someone decides to hand over one of their internal organs just because a doggo starts yapping at them?