The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has completed a record 20-person synchronized kidney transplant chain.
The operations for 10 donors and 10 recipients took place over two days, with five donor and five recipient surgeries on each day. The university believes that the chain is one of the largest single-institution chains in U.S. history.
A living donor kidney transplant chain starts off with an altruistic, non-directed donor who is matched with a recipient. To make a chain, the recipient is a person who has someone in their life who is also willing to donate a kidney, but isn’t a match to the person they know. In the chain performed at the Wexner Medical Center, donors were friends, co-workers and family of recipients.
Carley Fontana and Patricia Petrini, who have been friends for 25 years, were part of the chain. At a Thursday press conference, Fontana said she saw the toll that kidney disease took on her friend and she wanted to donate.
“When I found out she would need a kidney transplant in 2003, I immediately got blood tested. Unfortunately, I wasn't a match,” Fontana said. “But I received a phone call from the transplant team the same year that gave me hope. They asked if I would consider being part of a pair donation process and I said yes. Anything for Pat.”
It can be difficult for some people to find a viable donor. Organ compatibility is a bit more complicated than just matching blood types. There is also tissue typing, which identifies six Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) that are key to organ transplants. Identifying and matching HLAs helps to reduce the chances of the recipient’s immune system rejecting a donated organ.
The chain of surgeries performed at Wexner Medical Center had been planned since October, with some recipients receiving a kidney after years on the waitlist.
The hospital says that large chains like this offer the chance for more people to receive a kidney.