Women Donate Kidneys To Each Other's Spouses

Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer

February 23, 2006

Chicago, IL (AHN)—Two women will go under the surgeon's knife to donate their kidneys to each other's husbands, the Chicago Tribune reports.

After both wives were told they had the wrong blood type to donate their kidneys to their own husbands, the couples met through an organization that arranges paired living donor exchanges.

To date, 80 donor-recipient pairs have registered with the Paired Donation Consortium and 12 kidney swaps have been completed.

The operations will mean a new life for both families —- with the typical wait for a donated kidney in the Chicago area about five years.

Carl Chandler, a minister, tells the Tribune, "A black woman is donating to a Hispanic man, and a Hispanic woman is donating to a black man, and there's no fear or cause for concern."

Chandler says, "Too many people waiting for organs are afraid to go outside their communities because of prejudice or closed-mindedness. We hope that this will motivate people to realize there's no color issue here. There's just a sickness issue."

Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to have diabetes, a main cause of kidney failure. But, organ donors from black and Hispanic communities - which provide better matches for genetic reasons – are hard to come by.

As a result, a U.S. government organ-transplantation Web site notes, "minority patients may have to wait longer for matched kidneys and therefore may be sicker at the time of transplant or die waiting."

Copyright © 2006 All Headline News Corporation.

This article posted March 12, 2006.