According to the article, Johns Hopkins taught these so-called champions about living donation before sending them out to solicit. Somehow I suspect they neglected to mention the following:

4.4 living kidney donors die each yr in the US within 12 months of surgery.

20% of LKDs experience complications, some of which are life-long and painful.

20-30% experience depression, anxiety and PTSD.

We have NO national standards of living donor evaluation, selection or care.

We have NO comprehensive short or long-term data on living donors' health and well-being.


As the sister of a kidney transplant recipient, I understand the need for donor organs. But as a living kidney donor and donor advocate, I find this sort of behavior on the part of hospitals abhorrent. Transplant centers present themselves as neutral, as concerned with the living donor as they are the recipient. Yet this program clearly demonstrates they only care about obtaining kidneys for transplant (which coincidentally increases their profit margin while dialysis does not). The public, to them, are nothing but medical supply.

www.livingdonor101.com