The Living Donor Option
The average wait time for a deceased donor kidney is five to six years. To reduce your child's waiting time, you may want to look for a living kidney donor. Living donor transplants often have a better outcome than deceased donor transplants. Benefits include:

• Your child is less likely to reject the new kidney.
• The kidney is without a blood supply for only a short time. (A kidney from a deceased donor has to be brought to the hospital, which creates a time delay.)
• The kidney usually begins to work right away. (An organ from a deceased donor may not. This means your child may need dialysis for a short time after the transplant.)
• Your child and the donor will be in the best possible health for the transplant surgery.
• Some patients are able to get a transplant before they ever start dialysis.

Talk to a family member or close friend about your child's need for a living donor. Ask this person to discuss it with the rest of your family. This way, you won’t need to “ask” anyone to give your child a kidney. If someone is thinking about donating a kidney, he or she should contact The Transplant Center for details at 800-328-5465.

Click here to learn more about our Living Kidney Donor Program.

Special situations
If your child has a possible living donor, tests may show that he or she is not the best match for your child.

• If the donor has a different blood type: There’s still a chance that your child can receive his or her kidney. Further testing is needed.
• If your child has a positive crossmatch (tests show that your child is likely to reject the kidney) a series of treatments might allow your child to receive this kidney.
• If blood types differ, you have a positive crossmatch, or both: we may be able to arrange a “paired kidney exchange.” In this case, your child and another patient would swap donors. This ensures that both patients receive the best possible match.

We might also call to offer your child a kidney from a nondirected donor. This is a donor who wants to give his or her kidney to anyone on the waiting list. (You must be on the waiting list for a deceased donor kidney to receive this offer.) Such donors are carefully screened before they are accepted. In this case, you will not be told the name of your child's donor.

The Deceased Donor Waiting List
If your child does not have a living donor, we will place your child on the kidney transplant waiting list. We will do this after we complete the evaluation and after your insurance approves your child's transplant. We will send you a letter stating that your child has been added to the list. To stay on the list, your child will need to have regular blood tests so that samples can be sent to our lab. The letter will tell you how to do this.

Your child's blood type, tissue type and antibody level will go into a national database at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS directs who can receive deceased (non-living) donor organs throughout the United States.

When a kidney becomes available, the patient with the best match and longest waiting time is contacted. We will never know where your child is on the list, because we don’t know how well the next kidney will match your child's blood type, tissue type, etc.

To stay on the waiting list:

• Your clinic will need to send a sample of your child's blood to our lab every 8 to 12 weeks. If your child's tests show a  high level of antibodies (known as a high PRA), he or she may have a longer wait.
• It is very important that you make sure we recieve the needed samples of your child's blood on a regular basis. If we do not receive them, your child may miss the opportunity to receive a kidney. If you have any trouble doing this, please call your child's coordinator and she will be happy to help.

Your child needs to see a his or her local doctor every year for medical tests. We will send you a letter to remind you. The letter will explain the tests your child will need. You will have two months to complete these tests. Have your child's doctor send us the results. If we don’t receive them, your child will be put on hold.