National Kidney Foundation seeks to improve transplant process
Patti Singer • Staff Writer • October 20, 2009
The number of people waiting for a kidney transplant and the time they must wait has mobilized the National Kidney Foundation to end the wait in the next 10 years.
Representatives of the Kidney Foundation and from Strong Memorial Hospital will discuss End the Wait: Making the Dream a Reality, at 6 tonight in the Flaum Atrium, University of Rochester Medical Center, 415 Elmwood Ave.
John Davis, chief executive officer at the national level, is scheduled to be joined by Dr. Mark Orloff of the University of Rochester Medical Center Transplant Center and Drs. Chris Barry and Carlos Marroquin, the newest members of the kidney transplant surgical team.
The event is significant for Bob Legge, 57, of Lyons. On Wednesday, he will undergo a transplant. His wife’s sister is the donor.
“She’s my hero,” he said.
Diagnosed with kidney disease in 2003, Legge has been on the waiting list for two years. This summer he learned that his sister-in-law is a match.
Legge, also a board member of the National Kidney Foundation Serving Upstate New York, said that 20 percent to 25 percent of people on dialysis, as he is, die each year.
He said it’s important to improve education about living donation and remove barriers for the donors. He said that many people have asked his sister-in-law about her fears. “She said, ‘When you learn about it, it’s not so scary,’” Legge said.
According to the Kidney Foundation, the average wait for a kidney is five years. Nearly 400 local people are waiting for a transplant, and more than 7,000 people in New York and 81,000 nationwide are on the list.
The initiative seeks to improve the outcomes of first transplants, increase living and deceased donations and change public policy.
Currently, living donors can lack protections in the workplace and also for health and life insurance. The foundation also is working with Congress to expand Medicare coverage of immunosuppressant medications beyond the current 36 months.
PSINGER@DemocratandChronicle.com