A life-changing gift deserves life-changing care, which is exactly what one hospital is providing for living organ donors.
The Henry Ford Center for Living Donation (CLD) was built around providing the concierge level of care that living organ donors deserve. At the center, organ donors receive answers to questions about living donation, as well as support before, during and long after their procedure.
CLD staff work to help donors understand the risks involved with surgery, prioritize their comfort and safety, and offer robotic procedures when appropriate and acupuncture for pain control.
Donors who wish to learn more about their procedure and recovery are provided learning tools via iPad. Financial specialists also help living donors navigate insurance and other resources for expenses.
Dr. Jason Denny, kidney transplant surgeon and director of the Center for Living Donation, explained the importance of living donation.
“From a clinical perspective, the health history of the living donor is known well in advance, which allows significantly more screening and planning by medical staff,” he said. “What we know from experience is that donated organs from a living donor typically last longer and work immediately. A patient who has been on a waiting list is often sicker, which affects the rest of the body, which can be avoided with living donation.”
Living donation opportunities
Many are surprised to learn that living donation is not limited to kidney transplant. It’s also possible to donate a portion of their liver.
“The liver is the only internal organ that regenerates,” said Maria Zanini, clinical nurse manager. “So, you can donate about half your liver, and within three months your liver returns to 90% of its original size.”
Likewise, the donated organ grows in the recipient to 90% within three months and 100% within a year.
Another opportunity that surprises many is kidney paired donation. In a paired donation, you might attempt to donate a kidney to a friend but you’re not compatible. Instead, you can donate your kidney to another recipient, and their donor’s kidney can go to your friend. When this process involves multiple donors and recipients, it’s referred to as a kidney chain. Denny said Henry Ford has seen paired donations involving more than 10 people.
With safe, advanced procedures available for both kidney and liver donation, the opportunity to expand organ availability through living donation is prominent, but living donors typically don’t even inquire about the process unless they’re invited. That’s why the Center for Living Donation is also available to help those in need of a transplant to make that ask.
“It’s hard to ask others if they might be willing to consider donating an organ,” Zanini said. “We acknowledge that and support and navigate patients through that process.”
Dr. Marwan Abouljoud, Henry Ford Transplant director, said the Center for Living Donation has a guiding principle: “We believe that living donors are a special group of people. I always say our living donors are ‘angels on Earth.’ They are deserving of a very different frame of thinking, types of services we provide, things we can prepare them with … to make it the best experience for them.”
To learn more about living organ donation, click or tap here.