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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, Beto Maldonado knew the

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Speaker 1: trials of kidney disease and dialysis better than most in

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Speaker 1: after spending most of his life limited by disease, he

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Speaker 1: received a healthy kidney by way of transplant. Tragically, only

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Speaker 1: two years later, Maldonado died in a motor vehicle accident. Normally,

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Speaker 1: his death would have been the end of the road

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Speaker 1: for the healthy donor kidney, but instead that kidney was

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Speaker 1: regifted to another patient in need. This was done, of course,

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Speaker 1: with the permission of Maldonado's family. His sister Linda said

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Speaker 1: in a press release, we just thought they gave him

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Speaker 1: that gift, why not help another family if we can.

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Speaker 1: The recipient was a seventy year old woman who had

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Speaker 1: been on dialysis for ten years and pronounced the kidney

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Speaker 1: a blessing. Organ regifting is a pretty rare procedure, but

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Speaker 1: the team that transplanted this kidney, doctor Jeffrey Veale, director

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Speaker 1: of the u c l A Kidney Exchange Program, and

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Speaker 1: his team have retransplanted three kidneys in less than a year.

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Speaker 1: When we spoke with him. Doctor Viale said that he

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Speaker 1: sees potential for many more centers to jump on board

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Speaker 1: with the practice. He said, it's a shame that we're

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Speaker 1: discarding these kidneys, so why aren't more kidneys regifted? Doctor

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Speaker 1: Ville explained the knee jerk response is that once a

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Speaker 1: kidney is transplanted, you don't retransplant it, and added that

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Speaker 1: some concerns arise over the damage that might happen to

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Speaker 1: a kidney over two separate death events, but he points

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Speaker 1: out some of these kidneys endured multiple blood transfusions and

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Speaker 1: other treatments when the original donor died. He said regifting

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Speaker 1: is less of a shock than these terribly traumatic motor

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Speaker 1: vehicle accidents. He notes, of people who get a kidney

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Speaker 1: transplant die with a functioning kidney, that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: potential donors and healthy organs that save lives are in

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Speaker 1: short supply. Although some patients might bulk at receiving a

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Speaker 1: second hand kidney, waiting for a new one can take

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Speaker 1: on average three to five years, sometimes longer. In April eighteen,

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Speaker 1: more than thousand Americans were on a waiting list for

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Speaker 1: a kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

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Speaker 1: The nonprofit that manages the nation's organ transplant system. Some

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Speaker 1: twenty people die every day waiting for an organ transplant,

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Speaker 1: and indefinite life on dialysis is far from ideal For

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Speaker 1: people with diabetes, in particular, every year on dialysis sees

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Speaker 1: a drop in life expectancy and quality of life. Although

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Speaker 1: the regifting program is still in early stages, Reveal reports

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Speaker 1: that his recipients are all off of dialysis with well

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Speaker 1: functioning kidneys. He said, we don't know the long term results,

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Speaker 1: but it looks great Initially. Not all donor kidneys can

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Speaker 1: be successfully regifted. The same donation rules apply as those

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Speaker 1: of normal transplants. For example, a recipient who later dies

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Speaker 1: of a disease like cancer would not be able to

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Speaker 1: pass along the organ. However, a patient who experiences a

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Speaker 1: fatal stroke or accident could still be in possession of

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Speaker 1: a regiftable kidney. To allow for redistribution of obviously transplanted organs,

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Speaker 1: some major changes would have to happen, both within the

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Speaker 1: transplant centers and likely the aforementioned United Network for Organ Sharing. Currently,

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Speaker 1: programs assess the original donor to determine compatibility and viability

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Speaker 1: of the organ in re gifted cases. However, doctor Viale

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Speaker 1: says that they would instead need to review the first

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Speaker 1: transplantees details by use in records to virtually cross match

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Speaker 1: blood types and other details like medical history. This is

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Speaker 1: no small feat in an industry laden with important protocols

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Speaker 1: to protect patients. Nonetheless, it's possible that regifting may be

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Speaker 1: done to organs besides kidneys in the future. For example,

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Speaker 1: the liver doctor Ville said, these are often high quality

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Speaker 1: organs from young donors who have tragically died and are

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Speaker 1: often going to sicker patients on the wait list who

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Speaker 1: are often older and might have multiple medical issues and

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Speaker 1: so are at risk of dying a few weeks or

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Speaker 1: months later of a stroke or heart attack. Why not

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Speaker 1: take that high quality organ and help someone else out.

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Speaker 1: One organ donor can save up to eight lives, but

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Speaker 1: too often this potential goes unrealized. If you want to

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Speaker 1: be an organ donor, make your wishes known to your

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Speaker 1: family and take time to register online. The site d

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Speaker 1: m v dot org has an easy registration form. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Alia Howitt and produced by Tyler

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Speaker 1: Playing brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radios. How

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Speaker 1: Stuff works for more in this and lots of other

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Speaker 1: topics that keep on giving. Visit our home planet, how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from my

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,