First Spanish Living Donor Chain

[Fr Pat]

ABC Periódico Electrónico; Ap. 28, 2011 (translated):

SPAIN CARRIES OUT ITS FIRST LIVING KIDNEY DONOR CHAIN

     We don't know his name, nor his exact age (although from the looks of his hands he might be around 60), but he has become a hero for 5 other people. Thanks to this "Good Samaritan" it has been possible to perform Spain's first living donor kidney transplant chain.
     In his case the biblical image makes even more sense, as the donor starting the chain is a "man of God", a member of a religious congregation.
     The Brother (from Catalonia, northern Spain) contacted the National Transplant Organization when he found out that it was possible to donate a kidney without knowing who the recipient would be. After he had passed the physical and psychological tests, and expressed his consent before a judge, the Transplant Organization looked for the best possible chain of donations. Two married couples were chosen from the kidney exchange program: one from Catalonia and the other from Andalusia. The next patient (the last link of the chain) had been waiting 3 years fro a kidney donation from a deceased donor.
     The chain began on April 6 in the Fundación Puigvert, where the Brother donated his kidney to the husband in the Catalonian couple. That recipient's wife gave a kidney to the husband in the Andalusian couple, whose wife then donated her kidney to the patient on the waiting list for deceased donors. All the surgeries took place on the same day and hour. One kidney was flown from Barcelona (Catalonia) to Our Lady of the Snows Hospital in Granada (Andalucia) in a 45-minute jet flight. All the donors and recipients have been discharged from the hospitals and are in good health.
     The idea of giving a kidney to a stranger did not come all at once. The Catalonian Brother explained in a video (in which his face was not shown, as the donors remain anonymous) that years ago he had been in prison in a Latin American country (not for any crime) and there he first heard about the international traffic in purchased organs. He said that that was the beginning of a deep reflection that led him to donate a kidney.
     When asked how he felt after the donation he joked "Well, I feel a little lighter now!" All joking aside, he said "The way this makes me feel is far beyond any power of being thanked. I am a Religious, and I received much more than I gave."
     To help explain himself he cited an example from the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When a reporter commented that he would not do what she did, even for a million dollars, she replied that neither would she. But she could do it out of love for God. The Brother commented: "It was like that for me, except she gave her whole life, and I just gave a couple of days."
     He is not the only one showing a tendency toward being a "Good Samaritan". Since the Transplant Organization announced its intention to carry out donation chains like this, 35 volunteers have signed up, although 18 of those have been excluded for medical reasons. The profile of this type of volunteer donor is widely varied, pointed out the Organization director Rafael Matesanz: men and women of different religious beliefs, from 18 to 69 years of age.
     This type of "Good Samaritan" donation is already done in such countries as Holland, Britain and the United States, and it "multiplies ten-fold the posibility of arranging compatable combinations" said Luis Guirado, kidney specialist at the Puigvert Foundation.
     The Transplant organization now has a kidney exchange program active in 13 hospitals for patients who need a transplant and have a willing but incompatible donor. 62 such pairs have signed up, and 4 exchanges have been performed among them without a "Good Samaritan" donor.
     Matesanz points out that living kidney donation has a low risk for the donor. "If the donor does not have any risk factor such as high blood pressure or obesity, the possibility of later suffering renal insuficiency is low or nil." He points out that in fact "the survival of donors is higher than in the general population, not because they have donated a kidney, but because they have been very carefully selected."