Kids' Kidney Transplant Rules May Have Shrunk 'Race Gap'

[Terry R.]

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/n...ry_124544.html

Before 'Share 35,' black and Hispanic patients were less likely to receive organ than whites, researchers say
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The policy, called Share 35, preferentially offers kidneys from deceased donors younger than age 35 to children who need a kidney transplant.
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Overall, children with kidney failure were 46 percent more likely to receive a deceased-donor kidney transplant after Share 35 was implemented, with increases of 81 percent for Hispanics, 45 percent for blacks, and 37 percent for whites.

After Share 35 took effect, deceased-donor transplants occurred an average of 201 days earlier for Hispanic patients, 90 days earlier for black patients, and 63 days earlier for white patients.

With Share 35, children of all races had a shift from living- to deceased-donor kidneys. The reduction in living-donor kidneys was 48 percent for Hispanics, 46 percent for blacks and 25 percent for whites.

[8Man]

If medical 'authorities' truly wanted more people to sign organ-donor cards, they should allow "directed donation" restrictions to be specified. England used to allow it, but after one donor specified his organs could only go to another white person, that option was removed.

I think more people would sign organ donor consent cards if they could ensure their organs would only be used according to their wishes.

[Fred O'Malley]

I'm a kidney donor, I gave one to my daughter. The operation was a horror, I kept waking up though I was paralyzed and couldn't let them know I was awake.

My daughter had a nice clean incision but they had to cut me in half to get it out. I used to box Golden Gloves when I was a kid, and I had adhesions which made laproscopic removal impossible. The doctors asked my family what they should do, and my brother told the lead surgeon, "If you don't take that kidney out to save his daughter, after cutting him up, he will beat your ass."

They went back in and split me open then after surgery, they had me up and walking within an hour. Agony doesn't quite explain it.

[Dawn Cannon]

http://www.sharecare.com/question/he...ey-transplants

Q: What are the health disparities between races for kidney transplants?

A: The following disparities occur between races for kidney transplantation:

African Americans are six times more likely to develop kidney failure from hypertension and account for 32% of all treated patients.

African Americans are more likely to reject transplanted organs, and less likely to receive kidney transplants.

Transplant success rates increase when organs are matched between members of the same ethnic and racial group. Therefore, a lack of organs donated by minorities can contribute to death and longer waiting periods for organ matches.

Genes determine kidney transplant success

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/...aspx?id=186028

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that individuals with two copies of a recessive gene called apolipoprotein L1, or APOL1, which is associated with kidney disease, occurs in 10 to 12 percent of African-Americans but is virtually absent in Caucasians.

According to Freedman, the reason the gene became so common in the African-American population is because having one copy of the gene offered protection from an African parasitic disease called African sleeping sickness, while two copies today could lead to early kidney transplant failure.

LOTS of factors involved, much as the other races would like to use Whites as a source of spare body parts.