Pay It Forward – Kidney Donated By Stranger
KPLR11.com
4:20 PM CDT, March 30, 2010
Chicago, IL (KPLR11.com) – Something of a miracle occurred Monday for 19-year-old Melissa Clynes of Florissant, Mo.
Melissa’s kidneys were destroyed by medication she has taken since infancy when she had a heart transplant. Three years ago she received a kidney from her mother Mary, but a virus caused the transplant to fail. Since then, Melissa has had a difficult time finding a match until recently.
What’s so special about this transplant is that its part of a program called “Pay-it-Forward Kidney Transplant Program” that was started at the Loyola University Medical Center, just outside of Chicago.
The programs works by strangers coming forth to donate a kidney, which in turn is transplanted into another stranger, starting a donor’s chain. The donor’s kidney is then given to a compatible transplant candidate who has an incompatible donor who then agrees to give a kidney to a third person with an incompatible donor, and so on. Potentially, the chain can go on forever.
Melissa’s donor was Cynthia Ruiz, 22, of La Grange, Illinois. Currently, more that 82,000 people are on waiting list for kidney transplants in the United States and the average waiting time is five to seven years.
Pay-it-Forward Kidney Transplant Programs are hoping that with this type of donation, waiting time will be lessen nation wide, as the nation changes its approach to living donor kidney donations. The program has the potential greatly expand the pool of donors for patients waiting for kidney transplants.