Become a Donor and Transform a Life
When you donate a kidney, you save a life and change your own. Someone out there is waiting and hoping for someone like you. Discover how the gift of kidney donation gives hope and life through our AdventHealth Living Donor Program.
Living Kidney Donations Make a Difference
Why do we prefer living kidney donations?
They’re faster: Recipients spend less time waiting for a viable match.
They’re better: Living donor kidneys usually function faster and more effectively.
They’re stronger: Living donor kidneys last twice as long, on average.
What to Expect When You Become a Donor
- Complete Your Application
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Your application to our Living Donor Program is more than paperwork. It's a turning point in your story and a milestone marker in someone else’s. It’s the first step toward saving a life. It's also our donor team’s opportunity to look into your medical history and determine your eligibility.
Our team will review your application to make sure you meet the following transplant donor qualifications, including:
- Willingness to donate
- 18 years or older
- Good physical health (free of diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease or active cancer)
As we review your application, we aim to ensure you don’t have any conditions that could put you at risk for surgical or long-term complications.
- Making a Match
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Once we receive your application and our team has determined that you meet the basic eligibility requirements, we'll perform an initial compatibility test to see if you and your recipient are a match.
The test consists of:
- Blood test to check compatibility between you and the transplant candidate
- HLA (genetic testing)
- Cross-matching is a blood test designed to help determine how the transplant candidate will react to your kidney
Because our patients' privacy and safety are always our top priority, all testing is completely confidential.
Paired Donation Exchange: A Unique Alternative
Not everyone who wants to become a living donor will be the best match for their recipient. When that happens, our paired donation exchange program provides another option.
Paired donation is designed to match you and your recipient to another donor and recipient in the same situation. By exchanging donors, we can find compatible matches for both recipients.
- The Evaluation Process
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Your health and well-being are our priority. Our confidential evaluation process is designed to ensure you have a positive donor experience from evaluation to recovery.
As a potential living donor candidate, the cost of your donor evaluation process is completely covered.
Lab and Diagnostic Testing
If the compatibility tests determine that you and your recipient are a match, we'll ask you to come in for a physical evaluation.
Our team will guide you through the following testing in the comfort of our Denver facility:
- 24-hour urine testing
- Blood tests
- Chest X-ray
- Electrocardiogram (ECG)
- Computed tomography (CT) scan
Meeting Your Living Donor Team
We believe that the more you know about the living donor process, the more positive your experience will be. That’s why our team is here to teach, guide and empower you. Our donor patients and their caregivers often say their transplant team becomes a second family.
So, it’s only natural that the first step is getting to know each specialist on your team. And even though you’ll have one-on-one meetings with each of them, the team closely collaborates throughout your evaluation process.
Your donor transplant team includes:
- Your social worker is here to support you and make sure you’re mentally and emotionally prepared for the journey ahead. They'll discuss your decision to donate and connect you with any resources you may need.
- Your living donor advocate will walk you through what to expect throughout the process, from medical testing to life after donation.
- Your donor nephrologist and donor surgeon will each evaluate you to ensure you’re a good candidate for donor surgery.
Patient Review Committee
Once you've gotten to know everyone on your transplant team and your test results have been processed, we’ll review your case from beginning to end. If the team is confident that you're a good candidate for kidney donation, your surgery will be scheduled.
Multiple Listings
You're taking charge of your health, and that means you have every right to be evaluated by different transplant centers. Let us know if another center has already evaluated you so we can avoid duplicate testing and move your evaluation along faster. Our team can help obtain these records. Remember that each center evaluates and accepts patients based on their own criteria; being listed at one center doesn't guarantee that every center will accept you.
- What to Expect During Surgery
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Our AdventHealth Transplant Institute in Denver is one of the few centers in the country performing robotic-assisted donor nephrectomies. This technique allows for smaller incisions and scarring, greater precision, less pain and a faster recovery.
- Life After Donation
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For living donors, the road to recovery is typically smooth. Most donors spend two to three days in the hospital. You'll leave our hospital with detailed instructions, pain medications and a list of phone numbers to contact for any questions or emergencies.
More than likely, you'll be able to get back to your normal everyday activities after four to six weeks. And while you may bear a small surgery scar, wear it as a permanent badge of honor for saving a life.
Our Paired Exchange Program
If you are on a kidney transplant waiting list, you have options other than waiting on organ donation from a deceased donor. You can also receive an organ from directed donation or a paired exchange. Paired exchange is when two or more organ receipt pairs trade donors so each recipient can get a compatible kidney.
At our AdventHealth Transplant Institute, we are here to guide you through your entire journey.
Become a Donor and a Hero
If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a living donor or are ready to begin the evaluation process, please fill out our living donor application. We’re so grateful for our living donors, and a member of our team will contact you soon.