Give a Kidney- One's enough New charity

Almost three million British adults would consider donating one of their kidneys to a complete stranger, according to a new charity promoting altruistic organ transplants.

The charity Give A Kidney - One's Enough launches today and it commissioned a YouGov survey to discover attitudes towards living organ donations.

It found 33% of British adults did not realise that they were allowed to donate a kidney to a stranger and almost one-quarter believed they could only donate to someone they knew or were related to.


More info: Sky News

http://www.giveakidney.org/

Printing a Kidney. The future for transplants?

Check this out - i'll astonish you

Surgeons carry out first synthetic windpipe transplant

Surgeons in Sweden have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant.

Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient.

Crucially, the technique does not need a donor, and there is no risk of the organ being rejected. The surgeons stress a windpipe can also be made within days.

Click title for full report

National Kidney Registry in the news

This was a great piece in the New York Times Magazine (link below) but it framed the decision to donate to a child or start a chain as an "either or" decision. This is not the case. In fact, over the past 12 months, NKR chains started by Good Samaritan donors have helped a dozen kids get transplanted. The most recent child transplanted was a very hard to match 3 year old in Utah, which coincidentally, is the home of the author of the Times story.

The NKR Children & High PRA program (CHIP) is how chains are ended and will almost always provide a better match (HLA, age, size) to a child who ends a chain. A chain also has the potential to facilitate transplants for several children depending on the length of the chain and the composition of the pool. As it relates to the Times story, it would have been possible for Bala to start a chain, get 5 - 10 people transplanted AND get the 16 year old child transplanted with a better matched donor.

No matter how you look at this, Bala and all donors are heroes and should receive a standing ovation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/the-ethicist-life-preserver.html?_r=2

A few months ago, I signed up to be a living kidney donor to help someone in need who was not related to me. Recently I was told that I was a match for a local 16-year-old. But if I were to enroll in the national kidney registry, my donation could facilitate a donor chain, potentially benefiting 5 or 10 patients. Should I help one person now or several people in the future? It’s hard to say no to a child, yet does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one in this case? BALA AMBATI, SALT LAKE CITY

David Serur, MD

Medical Director, Kidney Transplantation

Rogosin Institute

New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell

505 East 70 Street

New York, NY 10021

Kidney Care Matters Online

Kidney Care Matters

Online

Welcome to the April issue of Kidney Care Matters. It's full of the latest news in kidney care, including details of a number of new resources launched by NHS Kidney Care, consisting of a key facts report for diabetes with kidney disease, a mini topic review on care planning, a literature review on peer support, and new kidney disease Health Investment and Education Packs (HIEPs).

There is also an invitation to register for an e-seminar in May hosted jointly by NHS Kidney Care and NICE, which will look at the new CKD quality standard, and what this means for clinical practice. The invite comes after this week’s launch of new NICE commissioning guidance on the early identification and management of CKD – click through for more details.

You can read about the results from the National Vascular Audit, which shows that nearly two in three kidney patients start haemodialysis using a venous catheter. We look at the role of the new best practice tariffs, and how they could help incentivize better vascular access. There is also a report on the new kidney unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, which was made possible with a £1million grant from the British Kidney Patients Association, and news of another kidney care case study that has been listed on the QIPP specialist collection – the third one to be featured this year.

In a new feature of ‘people focus’ articles on the renal network managers, we talk to Rebecca Campbell, manager of the Yorkshire and the Humber kidney care network, about the key priorities for her area and the network’s achievements so far.

As always, you will find details of the most up-to-date publications, and links to useful websites and the latest issues of other kidney-focused newsletters.

With best wishes

Beverley Matthews

Director - NHS Kidney Care

April 2011

http://www.kidneycarematters.nhs.uk/

KIDNEY CHAIN - WHY NOT IN THE UK??

TAMPA, For Gail McCauley, replacing her damaged kidneys might have been fairly straightforward. Her son wanted to give her one of his kidneys. They imagined checking in to the hospital together for the surgery. But as often happens, his tissues were a poor match for her. Yet TJ McCauley still gave up a kidney for his mother. The gift just ended up becoming a cross-country affair spanning three months, nine states, 16 donors and 16 recipients… For the entire story, click on the link below.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/donating-a-kidney-to-mom-part-of-a-cross-country-chain-of-events/1153933

Garet Hil
Founder & President
National Kidney Registry

World Kidney Day on Thursday March 11th Media Extra

Uk official  organ transplanttion site with information and publicity material

http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt

List of famous organ recepients from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_transplant_donors_and_recipients

Fox news story on Natalie Cole's organ transplant
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/05/22/natalie-cole-loses-sister-hours-kidney-transplant/edia