CONSIDER DONATING A KIDNEY

Who? Me? There might come a day when someone you care about needs a transplanted kidney--and you may be the person with a spare. Organ donation is not just for the dead--what about live donation? What does it mean for the donor?

Let's start with what it isn't. It doesn't cost you any money to give a loved one a kidney, or some of your bone marrow, or even part of your pancreas. Any charging of the donor, by doctor, hospital, or third party, violates Federal law. Any bills a donor gets come by mistake.

It doesn't impair you, or shorten your life, to share it with others, as you were born with two kidneys, and can do perfectly well with one. Giving part of your body to save a loved one's life will not make you a "cripple."

It isn't risky. People who'd be at risk from the surgery aren't accepted as donors. Live donors are healthy people. Donation surgery is safe for the donor.

And you're back on your feet pretty quickly. With the new surgery called laparoscopic nephrectomy, already in use at several transplant centers, the donor's incision (and operation scar) are smaller, there is less damage to the surrounding area (so you don't ache as much afterwards, or need so much pain medication), and you (the donor) get out of the hospital a lot faster (as little as two to four days).

Data show that patients who receive kidneys from living related donors do about 20% better than those who receive cadaveric donor kidneys from a stranger--and, Federal regulations allocating who gets what transplanted organ, and when, DO NOT APPLY to live donations. Patient, doctor, and donor decide who, when, and where--so there is no long wait.

To learn more about organ donation, contact: The Coalition on Donation, 1100 Boulders Parkway, Suite 500, Richmond, VA 23225; telephone: 1-800-355-7427; website: http://www.shareyourlife.org