Thinking smarter

Innovation in the medical field does not always come from the creation of a new drug, the invention of new equipment or the discovery of a new procedure.  Sometime it just comes from thinking smarter and using all the tools available to us for their maximum potential.

Personally I find this story site inspiring as it does not necessarily take a doctor or scientist to come up with an idea like this (although it probably did) and shows that anyone with a good idea could probably help.  This is the longest kidney transplant chain ever.

Kidney transplants are nothing new.  They have been around for a while.  Unfortunately there are more people that need kidneys than there are kidneys available.  Either one has to wait for the tragic demise of someone who has agreed to donate their organs or rely on a friend, family member or loved one to donate one to you.  Enter the kidney transplant chain.

You are willing to donate a kidney to a loved one, but you are incompatible.  However, there is a match out there so you donate your kidney to them.  Their loved one then donates their kidney to someone else in a kind of pay it forward scenario and eventually someone donates a kidney to your loved one.

This is just what happened in this case.  The story was published by the NY Times where 30 people donated kidneys to strangers so their loved one could receive a kidney.  Here is the story:-

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

As a result, 30 people have had their lives improved and/or saved by being able to receive a kidney and there are 30 less people on the transplant list, which means that those remaining are a little more likely to receive a life changing kidney if one becomes available.  Thanks to Dr Goldfarb who drew my attention to this article.  Stay well:)