In Wisconsin, there are on average about 1,250 people on the kidney transplant waitlist. Nationwide, that goes up to 90,000 people in need of organ donation. As rates of diabetes and high-blood pressure increase — along with one-in-three Americans at risk of chronic kidney disease — demand for kidney transplants is riding high.
National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin CEO Michael Crowley not only advocates for people and families living with kidney disease, but he’s also personally gone through the process of living kidney donation. Leigh Anne Mixon, vice president of the Transplant Service Line at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, has also donated a kidney. They both share about living kidney donation.
Wisconsinites who wish to pursue living kidney donation can do so through one of four transplant centers at Froedtert, Aurora St. Luke's, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and UW Health.
"At any point in the process, you can decide that you don't want to move forward — no questions asked," Mixon says. "But I think the opportunity that we all have to make such a difference in someone's life [is] worth exploring, if you think that it might be the right decision for you."
Potential donors connect with a living donor coordinator to learn more about the process and undergo thorough testing for health conditions that might compromise kidney transplant.
"It's the most extensive physical you'll get in your lifetime, and then there's the psychosocial assessment and there's a whole bunch more," Crowley says. "But once you're approved, then [it's] determined if you want to be active on the National Kidney Registry."
Just over a month after he was added to the registry and connected with an organ recipient, Crowley went in for the four-hour surgery.
"I was walking the next day and I was released two days after the donation with no pain meds," he says. "And I had a six week recovery at home."
Crowley says his visits to dialysis clinics through his nonprofit work inspired his decision to donate.
"When I left each one of them, I got into my truck and I went to post my experience on social media — and I cried — and I'll never forget it," he says. "So that was the light switch: the experience of going into a dialysis clinic and seeing the need for kidneys."
As a blood donor since age 16 and a seasoned health professional, Mixon thought about kidney donation for years before going forward with the procedure.
"It felt to me that while I was still relatively young and healthy, now would be a good time," she says.
Mixon says it's been moving to see the life-saving impact of kidney donation firsthand — not only as a leader working directly in transplant services, but also through correspondence with the recipient of her donation.
"We've exchanged cards where I know that my recipient is doing well, and has shared that now they know what it feels like to have good kidneys," she says. "And so it was a very special letter to receive."
To learn more, you can visit the National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin's kidney donation page.
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