{"id":36338,"date":"2018-04-05T09:13:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T13:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=36338"},"modified":"2021-05-31T15:49:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:49:34","slug":"will-you-donate-your-kidney-hospital-supports-patients-seeking-living-kidney-donors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/will-you-donate-your-kidney-hospital-supports-patients-seeking-living-kidney-donors\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWill you donate your kidney?\u201d: Hospital supports patients seeking living kidney donors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Danny Sutton-Long (right), a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at The Ottawa Hospital, donated a kidney to friend and fellow nurse Betty Organ, who is \u2018Aunt Betty\u2019 to his two daughters: Holly, 14, and Eve, 10. \u201cEve said to me, \u2018We\u2019re related now because you have Dad\u2019s kidney\u2019,\u201d said Betty.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Think about it: how would you go about asking family, friends or acquaintances to donate a kidney? It\u2019s an enormous request, and it\u2019s not always easy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought about it a lot \u2013 how I would approach somebody. You have a lot of time to think about it while on dialysis,\u201d said Betty Organ, a cardiac care nurse, now retired from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, who received a kidney from a friend and coworker in June 2017. (Yes, that\u2019s her real name, and yes, she\u2019s heard all the jokes!)<\/p>\n<p>Kidney transplants improve the long-term survival of patients with kidney disease compared with dialysis. Research has shown that kidney transplants from living donors generally work better and last longer than deceased-donor transplants. And the average wait time in Ottawa for a deceased-donor kidney is three to five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatients like Betty would prefer to have a planned living-donor transplant, but many are unsure how to get started,\u201d said Diane Dumont, Kidney Transplant Coordinator at The Ottawa Hospital. \u201cThe key is education about their options and encouraging them to get the word out about their need for a donor. If people don\u2019t know they need a kidney, how can they help?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36341 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-EN-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"Living Kidney Graphic\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-EN-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-EN-600x342.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-EN.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Still, many patients report feeling \u2018the 3 Cs\u2019 when it comes to talking about living kidney donation: conflict, concern and confusion, said Nurse Jessica McDougall, project lead for the Access to Kidney Transplantation and Living Kidney Donation project. \u201cThey have many questions: Will the conversation be uncomfortable? Will people feel pressured? How will I react if they say \u2018no\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the program\u2019s many goals is supporting patients with various strategies and tools so they feel confident talking about their need for a kidney donor. Some people have a tough time talking one-on-one with loved ones, but there are other ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Discuss it at a family gathering.<\/li>\n<li>Send a group email.<\/li>\n<li>Choose an advocate to help spread the word.<\/li>\n<li>Have a practice conversation first, to boost your confidence and readiness to tell your story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Studies show that patient conversations with their loved ones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0738399113004539\">go much better than predict<\/a>ed, explained Jessica. Often, the reluctance patients feel to approach loved ones is matched by their loved ones\u2019 equally strong desire to help.<\/p>\n<p>Betty, an outgoing person with a lively sense of humour, did not approach people one-on-one, but rather spread the word by talking with groups of people, encouraging them to contact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/clinical-services\/deptpgrmcs\/programs\/kidney-donation\/living-donation\/\">Living Kidney Donor Program<\/a> directly if they wanted to donate. (The donor and the recipient have separate teams to support them.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven my personality, it wasn\u2019t hard to speak to people, but I can see where it might be for others,\u201d she said. \u201cI was really lucky. I didn\u2019t have to beg anybody to donate. They came forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36342 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-2-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"image of Danny and Betty\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-2-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-2-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-600x391.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-2-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-768x500.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-2-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-1024x667.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Danny and Ged Sutton-Long, both nurses at The Ottawa Hospital and longtime friends of Betty\u2019s, immediately wanted to donate, and entered the rigorous screening process. Betty\u2019s family members were ruled out, then Ged was ruled out, and finally Danny became the donor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted the old Betty back,\u201d he said. She had been in good health before an illness damaged her kidneys, but Betty had become so deconditioned that she could barely walk. She didn\u2019t do well on hemodialysis. \u201cNow, we can see Betty getting back to how she was. It\u2019s wonderful to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Betty and Danny praised the program and the support they received.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe donor team makes it as easy on you as possible and they follow you, for the rest of life if you want,\u201d said Danny. \u201cThey do make a lot of promises and they keep them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betty, who has become an advocate for organ donation, is grateful not just to Danny, but to everyone who responded to her call.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t realize I had so many genuine good friends. I never take them for granted now.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"table-responsive\">\n<table class=\"table-bordered table\" style=\"height: 209px;\" width=\"705\">\n<caption style=\"display: none;\">Dates of Public Meetings<\/caption>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: center;\" colspan=\"4\">\u00a0 <strong>Think before using social media to ask for a donor<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\" colspan=\"4\">Talk to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/clinical-services\/deptpgrmcs\/programs\/kidney-donation\/living-donation\/\">transplant team<\/a> before using social media to help find a living kidney donor. The team will discuss the risks and benefits. For example, accepting a kidney from someone you don\u2019t know is risky because you don\u2019t know their motives. Donors must come forward freely of their own accord. It is illegal to offer money or services in exchange for organ donation in Canada. This law exists to ensure patients and donors are not put into vulnerable situations.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>For more information, and a guide on how to find a kidney donor, please call the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/clinical-services\/deptpgrmcs\/programs\/kidney-donation\/living-donation\/\">Living Kidney Donor<\/a> program at 613-738-8400 ext. 82778.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-36352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-3-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-3-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-3-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-600x416.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-3-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-768x533.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Living-Kidney-3-Danny-Sutton-Long-Betty-Organ-cropped-1024x711.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How would you go about asking family, friends or acquaintances to donate a kidney? It\u2019s an enormous request, and it\u2019s not always easy. \u201cI thought about it a lot \u2013 how I would approach somebody. You have a lot of time to think about it while on dialysis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":36339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[417],"class_list":["post-36338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-organ-donation"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}