Over at Market Design Blog, Al Roth posts part of an incredibly moving email conversation with a donor who became part of a kidney paired exchange after hearing what I think is one of the best Freakonomics episodes of all time. As the donor describes it:
Then I heard a follow up episode that united a donor with his recipient. Stephen Dubner was crying… I was crying… I called Mayo Clinic the next morning and signed up for testing.
You should definitely read the entire exchange here. And if you have not yet listened to the pair of Freakonomics podcasts that led to the donation, you should do so, but only if you’re in a setting where it’s okay to cry. The second podcast is the one the donor is referring to, in which a donor is reunited with his recipient.
Freakonomics podcast: Make Me a Match (Rebroadcast)
Freakonomics podcast: Ask Not What Your Podcast Can Do For You
I found this part of the exchange particularly interesting:
“The rest is a long story and I know you are a busy man so I’ll skip most of it. I ended up being part of a pair, instead of an altruistic donor. There was a man who worked with my wife that needed a kidney. He once saved her life with the Heimlich maneuver so it was pretty poetic that I could save his. He received his kidney from a bridge donor and I gave mine to someone on the diseased donor list. So I got to save two lives! I’m doing great. I went back to work a couple of weeks ago. I have no regrets and I hope I can inspire others to do something selfless and extraordinary in their lifetime. (emphasis added)
This ability to help more people, through a chain or paired exchange, rather than a single recipient, as through a donation to the waitlist, seems to be something that (understandably, I think) provides kidney donors with a lot of satisfaction. More generally, it’s important to hear these personal stories from kidney donors.
I’ve blogged a few times about kidney exchange, for example:
Custom, Contract, and Kidney Exchange
Global Kidney Exchange (GKE) to Overcome Financial Barriers to Kidney Transplantation
GKE Debate in Current Issue of The American Journal of Transplantation