earynmsaw...ao" • emrA What's Mine Is Yours Living kidney donor realizes the lifesaving impact of his gift. Shelli Liebman Dorfman Senior Writer D avid Graham says he always knew "only what the average person knows about organ donation." And, as indicated on the back of his drivers license, he added, "I wanted to donate my organs when I died." But after seeing the benefits reaped when he donated one of his kidneys to a very sick young woman this past April, Graham has come to understand the remarkable benefits of living organ donation. "Thousands of people die every year waiting for an organ to be donated:' said Graham, 33, of Farmington Hills. His hope is that others will realize this alternative donation option and "will consider donat- ing:' he said. The recipient of Graham's left kidney is a 22-year-old woman not related to him — the daugh- ter of a former co-worker of his wife, Robyn. "She had a genetic defect that shut down both kid- neys," Graham said. "This also made it hard to find a donor. The doctors did not want to take a kidney from a family member in case they Kidney donor had the same defect" David Graham Organ donations from non-relatives are the exception. And despite being a cross-racial, cross-gender donation, Graham was as perfect a match as a family member would be. "The body doesn't not look at gender or race when it comes to body parts': said Graham. "All the body cares about is blood type. My antigen match was a three-out-of- six. A six-out-of-six would be a twin match so mine was the equivalent to what a family member of hers would have:' David Graham's father, Bill Graham of West Bloomfield, described his son's attitude as "life-defining," namely, "if this woman doesn't get a kidney she will die, and no one else has offered — so I have to." David Graham's three-and-a-half-hour surgery at the Henry Ford Transplant Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit was overlapped by the recipient's nearly five-and-a-half-hour operation, begun when his was almost complete. Graham was amazed that right after the surgery the recipient felt better. "It doesn't 24 June 28 • 2007 take long for the body to start cleaning itself:' he said. "I felt good that the kidney was working properly and her body had not tried to reject it!' During much of the day of the surger- ies, Graham's wife and his parents, Susie and Bill, stayed at the hospital along with the recipient's family, with each of them checking in on one another and on the two patients. "It was really joyous waiting with the woman's family:' said Bill Graham, who several years ago volunteered to be a lung donor for David's close friend, a cystic fibro- sis patient who could not accept it because he required a double-lung transplant. A Worthwhile Choice David Graham's recovery began with the two-day hospital stay. "The day after surgery I was eating a corned beef sandwich and a cookie,' he said. The recipient's recovery time, he added, "was much longer and more painful than mine!' She is just returning to work part time, about two months after the surgery. Because of the physical require- ments of his job as a remodeling contractor, Graham took five weeks off from work. "I arranged the time off by working as many days as I could to accumulate as much money as I could before the proce- dure." In addition to donating a kidney, Graham is also on the bone marrow donor registry. When his late sister, Alex, was baffling can- cer he underwent apheresis (a blood dona- tion process) for her. "I guess that's where it started:' he said. "I guess that put something in the back of my mind to help others if I could. I had the chance to give a young girl a long, healthy life by giving away a body part I really didn't need. I wasn't out for glory or a medal. I just felt I needed to do what was right for me." "I was raised in a family that believes in charity and kindness," Graham added. "I feel good about helping someone have a better life. "It's not the quantity of life, it's the qual- ity that matters:' Graham said. "You can have a big car and a large house on the lake but in the end does it make you truly happy? Sometimes the things in life that make a difference can't be bought with money." II Giving Life Transplants from living donors are becoming common. Shelli Liebman Dorfman Senior Writer W ith nearly 100,000 Americans awaiting organ transplants, organs donated by living donors offer a life- saving alternative to those transplant- ed from deceased donors. Typically only one organ is donated by each living donor, compared with the many that can be transplanted from a deceased donor. But, still, living organ donation has greatly increased the amount of organs available for transplant. Since the first successful living donor transplant was performed between 23-year-old identical twins in Boston in 1954, 86,000 living donors have offered organs. So far this year, in addition to the 1,943 deceased donors in the U.S., there are 1,534 living organ donors. There are advantages to living organ donation, including the oppor- tunity to schedule the surgery rather than having it performed as an emer- Information and statistics for living organ donation, provided by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in Richmond, Va., include: Guidelines: •Donors must be in good health and free from blood pressure con- cerns, diabetes, cancer, kidney dis- ease and heart disease •Typical donors are between ages 18-60. •Gender and race are not factors in determining a successful match. •Donors' medical history is reviewed and a physical exam and sometimes a psychological evalua- tion are performed. Procedures: •The traditional procedure for kid- ney donors involves a surgical inci- sion around the donor's lower back and side, requiring a five to eight- day hospital stay with return to work after about six weeks. •Laparoscopy may be used to recover kidneys from the donor's abdomen through a series of small gency operation. This allows the recip- ient time to begin taking immuno-sup- pressant drugs to decrease the risk of organ rejection. Transplants from living donors are often more success- ful because there is a better tissue match between the living donor and the recipient. Among the types of organs that can be delivered by living donors, the kidney is the most frequent type, with the remaining kidney compensating to do the work of both. In Michigan, 3,276 individuals are on waiting lists, of which 2,671 need kidneys. Other organs transplanted from living donors include segments of the liver, which regenerate to full function. Lobes of the lung and portions of the pancreas and intestine may also be transplanted. And when it is determined that the lungs of a deceased donor will func- tion best if transplanted along with the donor's heart, the living recipient's healthy heart may be transplanted into another recipient. incisions involving a shorter recov- ery time. Risks: •Some pain and discomfort are expected, along with risks of major surgery. •Kidney donors may develop infections or bleeding. •When a portion of the liver or pancreas is donated, the liver or spleen may be injured. •Psychological consequences may result, especially from those pres- sured into donation or if the recipi- ent rejects the donated organ. Donation Costs: •Health insurance coverage var- ies, with most private insurance plans paying 100 percent of the donor's expenses. I 1 For information on organ dona- tion, call the United Network for Organ Sharing at (804) 782- 4800 or access the Web site at: unos.org .