Changing Lives Through Kidney Donations

The most common type of living donation is kidney donation, which is made possible by selfless individuals who offer an organ or part of an organ to someone in need of a life-saving transplant. Annually, over 6,000 living kidney donations occur. This panel will explore the kidney donation process from beginning to end by hearing from two donors who are a part of the longest kidney donation chain in the country. This panel will also discuss the common misconceptions about donation, compare the health benefits of living and deceased kidney donation and talk about the Transplant Games coming to New Jersey in 2020.

Guests Include:
Brian Glennon, Living Kidney Donor & NJ Sharing Network Volunteer
Dr. Prakash Rao, Vice President of Diagnostics and Research Operations & Director of Transplant Laboratory, NJ Sharing Network
Dr. Stuart Geffner, Director of Renal and Pancreas Transplant Surgery, RWJBarnabas Health & Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon in Chief, Saint Barnabas Medical Center
Jocelyn Tsai, Living Kidney Donor & Daughter of Recipient

11/24/18 #3127

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to Caucus, I'm Steve Adubato. Interesting fact, over 6,000 living kidney donations happen each year, because of selfless individuals willing to give the gift of life to someone else in need. Now joining me here in the studio are four individuals who understand organ donation a lot better than most. First, Brian Glennon is a living kidney donor and New Jersey Sharing Network volunteer, Dr. Prakash Rao is the director of Transplant Laboratory at the New Jersey Sharing Network, Dr. Stuart Geffner has been with us before. He's the director of renal and pancreas transplant surgery at RWJBarnabas Health, and finally, Jocelyn Tsai, a living kidney donor and daughter of a kidney recipient. During this program folks because we are actively involved, working with the sharing network, you're gonna see the website. That website is one of the most significant websites you're gonna see in terms of where to get valuable information, how to find out about organ and tissue donation, and a whole range of other aspects of this complex and important issue. Stuart, you've been with us before, you've performed how many kidney surgeries? Probably about two or three thousand over the course of what's now 24 years at St. Barnabas Medical Center. Biggest difference between a living donor and a deceased donor? The biggest differences of this tremendous advantage to receiving a living donor transplant for the recipient, it can be done electively, it can be done when the recipient has... is in the best medical condition to undergo surgery, and the bottom line is, it gives better results. Better short-term and better long-term results for the recipient. And some... so someone right now, right... I mean, we're involved in a public awareness initiative, if you know our series, you know we've been doing that. We put up the website right now. Someone wants to find out, Brian, about living organ donation, which you were involved in? Correct. Of course, you..."