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by cogman10 583 days ago
How long do you stay at the top of a transplant list?

My spouse recently had a kidney removed due to cancer (she's fine, caught it early).

If she ever needs a new kidney I've been hoping I'm compatible, we share the same blood type. However, if I can give up my kidney to move her permanently up the list, that's worth considering for me.
3 comments
shepherdjerred 583 days ago
You'll want to confirm before you donate -- it depends on what hospital/organization you're donating through. In my case, I'm prioritized for being a donor and five of my family members are also prioritized. If a one of those family members receives a kidney out of need then I am still prioritized (effectively giving me/my family two kidneys for the price of one). Note that you can designate five family members to be prioritized, but only the first one in need will be prioritized.

This stays in effect as long as the NKR exists -- there's no expiry.

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currymj 583 days ago
If you need to donate to your wife and aren't compatible, separate from the NKR vouchers, there are "kidney exchange" programs where pairs of people in that situation are matched with each other. So you'd donate to someone else, and at the same time someone would donate to your wife. Actually calculating the match among all those pairs is a fun NP-hard optimization problem.
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Suzuran 582 days ago
It's a match-criteria-based list, so you stay at the top until you die or receive a matching transplant. If you are at the top of the list but don't match an available organ, the organ goes down the list to the highest match that can be brought to an operating room in time.

Edit: Geography is important too. The kidney can only survive outside of a (cardiovascularly-functioning) body for minutes at a time. If you are at the top of a list but the kidney is across the country and you don't have access to a private jet, it's going to someone else. This is the "loophole" that Steve Jobs used to get a liver transplant - Since he had a fleet of private jets available to him, he could be simultaneously listed for transplant on multiple lists.

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