{"id":10114,"date":"2017-04-13T11:38:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T17:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=10114"},"modified":"2022-12-20T13:27:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T20:27:34","slug":"altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Altruistic donor triggers first transpacific paired kidney exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Members
The UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital side of the Colorado-Hawaii paired-kidney donation chain: from left, transplant surgeons Thomas Bak, MD, who did the donor surgery, and Kendra Conzen, MD, who performed the recipient surgery; Jennifer Lee; Maryam Ornelas; Ryan Davis and Jim Fredrick. Lee and Fredrick were donors; Ornelas and Davis recipients. Fredrick’s kidney went to Ornelas; Lee\u2019s kidney went to Cherish Matauria in Hawaii; and Davis received a kidney from Hawaiian donor Elizabeth Lehman to complete the virtuous circle that Frederick\u2019s altruistic donation started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It started with a podcast.<\/p>\n

It ended with three live-donor kidney transplants among complete strangers, two of them involving the flight of vital organs halfway across the Pacific Ocean \u2013 a first.<\/p>\n

On the first day of spring, the six people involved were together for the first time, live and via videoconference. Four were at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital; the other two were 3,300 miles away, at the Queen\u2019s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Jim Fredrick, 54, listened to the podcast in June 2015. The Colorado Springs man tuned in to a Freakonomics Radio episode<\/a> focusing on problems money alone can\u2019t solve, with organ transplant being a central example.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got intrigued,\u201d Fredrick said.<\/p>\n

Then in February 2016, Fredrick caught another Freakonomics Radio podcast. It featured a Connecticut man who had listened to that same June 2015 podcast and then donated a kidney to a complete stranger \u2013 an altruistic kidney donation, it\u2019s called.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I listened to that one, it hit me like a ton of bricks,\u201d Fredrick recalled. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018I think I can do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He reached out to the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital Transplant Center. Angela Miskolci, RN, a transplant coordinator, took the case. Of the roughly 140 kidney transplants the UCH Transplant Center did in the past year, \u00a0three involved altruistic donors. Thanks to something called paired kidney exchange, those donors can save more than a single life, triggering a cascade of beneficence that works like this.<\/p>\n

Donate and receive<\/h2>\n

The altruistic donor offers to give her kidney to anyone whose physical dimensions, blood type, age and immune system will allow it. The nonprofit National Kidney Registry<\/a> takes that information and taps into its paired kidney donation database. The database contains pairs of people. One of them needs a kidney transplant. The other would like to donate a kidney to the first person \u2013 but can\u2019t do it because she\u2019s not a compatible donor. So the healthy person agrees to donate a kidney to someone she doesn\u2019t know in exchange for their friend or loved one\u2019s receiving a kidney from someone he doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Why do all this juggling? As of late March, nearly 98,000 people were on the national waiting list for a kidney, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). They wait, on average, four to seven years. That\u2019s a long wait for anything, and longer yet when one must endure four-hour dialysis sessions three times a week the entire time. Kidney transplant patients who can arrange for a live donor can avoid the virtual line. That\u2019s also the case with paired donors.<\/p>\n

But often, it takes someone like Jim Fredrick to set things in motion. And in this case, that chain stretched from Aurora to Honolulu.<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Colorado Hospital kidney donors, recipients, and Transplant Center staff and surgeons in teleconference with the Hawaiian side of the trans-Pacific paired donation on Monday, March 20, 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donor recipient pairs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fredrick\u2019s kidney was a match for Maryam Ornelas, 50, of Aurora. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2014, and the cancer had ruined her kidneys. She had been on dialysis ever since. Jennifer Lee, also of Aurora, volunteered as a paired donor. Lee, 44, said she would have preferred to give a kidney to Ornelas, but they were incompatible. When approached about paired donations, she said, she accepted because \u201cnot only could I help her, I could help someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theirs was not your typical organ donor-recipient relationship in another way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my husband\u2019s ex-wife,\u201d Lee told those gathered for the videoconference. \u201cSo that\u2019s a little unique twist there.\u201d They\u2019ve been friends for a decade, Lee continued, \u201cand she has graciously allowed me to co-raise my stepdaughter for the last 22 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Colorado connection of the Colorado-Hawaii paired-kidney donation group: from left, Jennifer Lee, Mayam Ornales, Ryan Davis and Jim Fredrick. Lee and Fredrick were donors; Ornales and Davis recipients. Fredrick’s kidney went to Ornales; Lee’s kidney went to Cherish Matauria in Hawaii; and Davis received a kidney from Hawaiian donor Elizabeth Lehman to complete the virtuous circle that Frederick’s altruistic donation started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lee turned out to be a match for Cherish Matauria, 24, a mother of three young children in Honolulu.<\/p>\n

Matauria was already on dialysis in 2015 when Elizabeth Lehman, a nurse at the Honolulu pediatrics office where Matauria takes her kids, \u201csaw how hard it was to manage her kids and dialysis and full-time work,\u201d Lehman said.<\/p>\n

Matauria wasn\u2019t quite sure what to make of it at first.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the blue she texted me one day and said, \u2018I want to donate my kidney to you,\u2019\u201d Matauria said. \u201cI thought she was joking but it turns out she really did want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lehman and Matauria were also incompatible, but Lehman\u2019s kidney was a match for Ryan Davis, 37, of Elizabeth, Colo. A martial arts instructor with two girls and a boy now ages 10, eight and four, Davis\u2019s combination of diabetes and complications from foot surgery led to kidney failure, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing dialysis three nights a week, I was working three jobs and trying to homeschool three kids,\u201d Davis recalled. \u201cI had promised my wife I would walk my girls down the aisle. I wasn\u2019t allowed to pass before them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lots of prep for transplant recipients and donors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And so the stage was set. What remained was a great deal of preparing and arranging at sea level and a mile above it. In the two weeks prior to the transplant, Miskolci and Maile Reddy, her Queen\u2019s Medical Center counterpart, communicated \u201csometimes 10 times a day,\u201d Miskolci said. Being part of National Kidney Registry made things easier. This paired exchange program, the largest in the country, matches incompatible pairs and sends out offers for exchanges. They put transplant coordinators in touch with each other and handled the details related to the Denver-Honolulu and Honolulu-Denver transportation. Kidneys fly commercial, and in this case, it was important they had direct flights \u2013 they must be transplanted within 24 hours of removal, and the sooner the better. United Airlines\u2019 nonstop from Denver to Honolulu takes seven-and-a-half hours, with the reverse about an hour shorter, thanks to the jet stream. A backup flight with one stop was arranged just in case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was unique in the simple fact that it was going across the ocean so we had to make sure we made our flights,\u201d Miskolci said.<\/p>\n

The team at UCH also lined up the transplant surgeons: Thomas Bak, MD<\/a>, would do the surgeries on the Colorado donors Fredrick and Lee; Kendra Conzen, MD<\/a>, would transplant the kidneys into Ornelas and Davis.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 14, 2016, they did the UCH in-house surgeries, transplanting Fredrick\u2019s kidney into Ornelas. The next day, Bak removed Lee\u2019s kidney in time for a midday flight; it arrived in time for Matauria\u2019s procedure, which started at 5 p.m. in Honolulu. Edwards\u2019 kidney, having been removed four hours earlier, was already en route to Colorado, where, at 6 a.m. on Nov. 16, Conzen transplanted it into Davis, completing the swap.<\/p>\n

Being and receiving a living donor<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"The
The UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital side of the Colorado-Hawaii paired-kidney donation chain: from left, transplant surgeons Thomas Bak, MD, who did the donor surgery, and Kendra Conzen, MD, who performed the recipient surgery; Jennifer Lee; Maryam Ornelas; Ryan Davis and Jim Frederick. Lee and Frederick were donors; Ornelas and Davis recipients. Frederick’s kidney went to Ornelas; Lee\u2019s kidney went to Cherish Matauria in Hawaii; and Davis received a kidney from Hawaiian donor Elizabeth Lehman to complete the virtuous circle that Frederick\u2019s altruistic donation started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four months later, as they convened physically and virtually, they were all doing well. They told their stories briefly. The prevailing vibe was a mix of nervousness, gratitude and amazement. University of Colorado surgeons Bak and Conzen sat in, too, though, as Bak put it, \u201cWe just take \u2018em out and put \u2018em in \u2013 these guys are the stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just appreciate everyone in this chain and hope it continues to raise awareness about paired exchange,\u201d Conzen said. \u201cThank you to all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what their worries had been, the paired donors Lee and Lehman said their primary concern that Ornelas and Matauria would reject the new kidneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd of course I\u2019d be lying if I said I wasn\u2019t afraid to give up an organ and what that meant,\u201d Lee said. \u201cBut I think all of the questions I had throughout the process were answered, and my fears were put to rest along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the recipients, it\u2019s been life-changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel much better \u2013 just not having to do dialysis,\u201d Ornelas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I can focus on the things that are really important,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s such a blessing I can\u2019t even define it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I went to dialysis, my kids would always cry and ask me to stay home with them,\u201d Matauria said, her voice breaking. \u201cAnd now that I have a new kidney, it gives me more time to be with them and watch them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fredrick, who set it all in motion with his altruistic donation, said he was back climbing the Manitou Incline<\/a> three weeks after the surgery. The incision\u2019s healing still kept him from doing sit-ups and such, he said, but he\u00a0had changed his diet before the surgery, had lost seven pounds and felt better than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you recognize you\u2019re just a happier person when you\u2019ve donated an organ voluntarily,\u201d he added. \u201cMost people think: \u2018What?\u2019 They don\u2019t get it. Which is fine \u2013 I don\u2019t need anybody else to get it. People that do it get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

April is Donor Awareness month. For more information on altruistic kidney donation, visit UCHealthLivingDonor.org<\/a> or call 720-848-0855<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started with a podcast. It ended with three live-donor kidney transplants among complete strangers, two of them involving the flight of vital organs halfway across the Pacific Ocean \u2013 a first. On the first day of spring, the six people involved were together for the first time, live and via videoconference. Four were at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":10175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3415,3231,39],"class_list":["post-10114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-living-kidney-donation","tag-living-organ-donation","tag-transplant-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAltruistic donor triggers paired kidney exchange - UCHealth today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It started with a podcast and ended with three live-donor kidney transplants among complete strangers an ocean away.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Altruistic donor triggers first transpacific paired kidney exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It started with a podcast and ended with three live-donor kidney transplants among complete strangers an ocean away.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCHealth Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uchealthorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T17:38:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-20T20:27:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/04\/18105935\/photokidney.pngeee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/da7733ff5562e48e55c027d111ee5911\"},\"headline\":\"Altruistic donor triggers first transpacific paired kidney exchange\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-13T17:38:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-20T20:27:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1763,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/18105935\\\/photokidney.pngeee.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Living kidney donation\",\"Living organ donation\",\"Transplant services\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/altruistic-donor-triggers-first-transpacific-paired-kidney-exchange\\\/\",\"name\":\"Altruistic donor triggers paired kidney exchange - 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