https://reasonstobecheerful.world/kidney-exchange-chains/ (https://reasonstobecheerful.world/kidney-exchange-chains/)chains of Generosity Transforming Kidney Donation
The Chains of Generosity Transforming Kidney Donation
More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are on the waitlist for a kidney transplant. How many of their lives could be saved by strangers?
By: Anna Patton (https://reasonstobecheerful.world/author/anna-patton/)
July 30, 2026 7 min read
A
guy goes into a bar, and leaves with one less kidney. That's a joke Mark Scotch tells about his life. It's only a slight exaggeration: A chance encounter in 2020 did lead to him donating a kidney — although not quite in the way he expected.
Scotch, then 64, had gotten talking to Hugh Smith, 56, in a Louisiana bar. At the end of their conversation, Smith mentioned that he spent 10 hours every night on dialysis, something only a kidney transplant would change. "It went from this enjoyable experience of meeting him to thinking, 'Oh my God, this guy's life is just horrible.' ... It was just so abrupt," recalls Scotch.
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