Sunday, April 10, 2011

The Waiting...continued...

Let's take a step back and explain the mathematics of how this transplant list works. Kidneys are offered on a point-based system. Potential recipients are assigned points based on several criteria:
  • Time on the transplant list. You receive one point for each full year that you have been on the list and a fraction of a point (1/365) for each day that you have been on the list.
  • Genetic match with the potential donor. The closer you match the donor, the more points you get.
When a organs are available for transplant they are offered to patients on a local, regional, and then a national level. This is done to shorten the time that the organs are out of the body. This period is called cold ischemic time, and the shorter the "cold time" before transplant, the better the organs generally work. To shorten this "cold time," the country has been divided into regions, or organ procurement organizations (OPOs). When organs are available within an OPO, it is offered to the patients in that OPO first. The OPO for my region is called "Gift of Life" and it encompasses the eastern half of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and part of southern New Jersey. When organs become available, all medical information is entered into the database, the computer system runs the list, and several potentially eligible recipients are notified. If you are first on the list, the hospital will tell you to come in, "backup" recipients are also notified and put on standby. If the primary recipient cannot be transplanted for medical reasons, or because they are incompatible with the donor, the backup recipients all move up a notch.

So there you go.....this transplant business is complicated stuff. But all things considered, the folks that are running this show have it down to a real science. 
I am thankful for their expertise and dedication.