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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-06
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-rQ8WBiNk
imagine it's Monday morning and you're getting ready for the week ahead but you awaken to feelings of profound fatigue as though you never slapped and your mind is not clear or crisp and you wonder how you will get it all done he leaves the house and you start the drive but you're not headed to work or school instead you check into the local dialysis center were
you spend the next four hours hooked to a machine with a series of filters designed to clear your blood of the very toxins that because that T. and not mental fuzziness on your way out as you say goodbye to the staff they respond C. N. two days and that's what life with kidney failure is like just to live you have to come back every two days
and repeat the process over and over again to make your situation seem even more impossible you learn that ten out of everyone hundred kidney failure patients will die on dialysis each year even worse the only cure kidney transplantation it has a supply and demand problem more than a hundred thousand people are in need of a kidney transplant but fewer than eleven thousand deceased donor kidney transplants
are performed each year from the shadows however emerge family friends even strangers they've heard your story and your plight and they are ready and willing to give you the gift of life they learned about living kidney donation and that most people can live a healthy normal life with just one kidney in fact they're ready and willing to give you their kidney living donor kidney transplantation will
cure your kidney failure and eliminate your need for dialysis one by one doctors begin testing their blood to make sure they're a match for you one by one however they are eliminated from donating do you because of blood group and tissue and compatibilities there are no matches and your last to wait for a deceased donor kidney to become available the weight you ask how long eight
to ten years and you remember ten percent kidney failure patients will die each year waiting you feel so alone wondering if you two will die while waiting you're not alone many individuals in need of a kidney transplant have a willing but incompatible living kidney donor in fact almost half of people who volunteer to be a living kidney donor will not match their intended recipient this is
because of differences in blood groups in tissue types you wonder is there a solution there is a solution in fact it's what I do I'm part transplant surgeon then part matchmaker if you will I take living donor and recipient pairs that don't match because of age differences size differences or differences in blood types and tissue types and I facilitate kidney exchanges so instead of receiving a
kidney from your original donor he received a kidney from a total stranger and in return your original donor gift to someone else in need while it may seem complicated we actually borrowed a page out of the airline industry's playbook and facts are optimized computerized algorithms designed to identify the most number of potential matches and therefore transplant are actually based on the same applied mathematics algorithms the
airline industry is used to keep airplanes from crashing into each other during flight you see unlike the human brain these optimized computerized algorithms can processed all possible matches and choose the combinations that will result in the greatest number of transplant to participate a recipient simply need someone a spouse a parent a friend willing to donate a kidney to a total stranger on their behalf these individuals
may began as complete strangers but with the help of a loved one willing to donate and honor of them they can change each other's lives come with me to a hospital ward filled with patients in need of transplants and they're living kidney donors desperate to help them Bure maging surgery rounds were walking room to room checking on the patients answering questions and making sure they're ready
for surgery we're not on the first door and we entered a fine Caitlyn a rising high school senior and black belt in karate who suddenly fell seriously ill and had few options Caitlyn joined the ranks of the more than one hundred thousand Americans in desperate need of a kidney transplant at Caitlyn side as her dad Earle who's ready and willing to give her the gift of
life Earl indeed is both a blood group and tissue match for his daughter Kaitlyn but is twenty five years her senior and Earl knows that by participating in the exchange Caitlyn stands to benefit by receiving a kidney from a much younger stranger and just a few doors down we entered a fine pastor Derek pastor Derek has been waiting some time to donate his kidney in honor
of his friend Michael with whom he was not a tissue match we see Michael already received his kidney transplant as a part of the different like of the chain pastor Derek is simply paying the gift forward by donating in honor of Michael and in so doing is keeping the chain alive and passing the gift of altruism on to the next person in need and just next
door although neither of them knows it is Allison a wife and mother of three he'll be receiving the pastor's gift of life this young mom is receiving pastor Derek's kidney because her cousin Courtney with him she was not a blood type came forward and volunteered to donate a kidney on her behalf and although none of them realizes it because in Courtney's kidney is destined to provide
high schooler Caitlyn a fresh new start on my in fact a twenty year younger kidney and her dad Earl could have given her and in Caitlin's honor Earl will donate his kidney setting off the next series of exchanges and just like that stream of strangers change each other's lives simply by changing the conversation from donating directly to their loved one to donating in honor of their
loved one although they all began as strangers the relief and gratitude are palpable and you can see act and each of their faces the realization that they have each become a part of something bigger than themselves in one day multiple lives were changed two transplants for made a reality and no one was left to wait for a deceased donor kidney to become available so simple yet
so profound donor exchanges like this one have the potential to revolutionize how we match those in need with potential donors and could double the number of live donor transplants performed in this country each year from six thousand to twelve thousand that's six thousand more live donor kidney transplants that's six thousand fewer people waiting for a deceased donor kidney to become available it's also six thousand more
deceased donor kidneys now available for those who can't identify a living kidney donor it's a win win yet we have never realize the full potential of living donor exchanges in this country why might you ask well what's missing is one centralized selfless system in which every living donor and recipient pair participates and joins a movement a crusade to save lives simply put we must change the
conversation we must move from an opt in system in which living donor and recipient pairs only participate when absolutely necessary when their blood groups and tissue types don't match to an opt out system in which we assume altruism in which every living donor and recipient pair participates regardless of compatibility yes it begins by believing the best and our fellow man it begins with the assumption of
altruism and igniting a movement to eliminate and compatibilities as barriers to live donor kidney transplantation it begins by changing the conversation from donating directly to your loved one to donating in honor of your loved one join me help me change the conversation help me advocate for and create a single national living kidney donor exchange thank you
