An Evanston Jewel-Osco cashier found a kidney donor in an unlikely spot – a regular customer of hers. Dan Coyne often chose Myra de la Vega’s checkout line because she was friendly. Coyne, 52, started to notice Vega, 49, looking sick when she started dialysis for kidney failure. She was hoping her sister from the Philippines would be a kidney donor match, but the matching tests failed. After researching organ donation and completing compatibility tests, Coyne offered Vega his kidney. “If we can be friends and our families support each other, fine,” Coyne told the Chicago Tribune , “but I want her to know she is in no way obligated to continue a relationship with me after she gets the kidney. It’s a gift.” In Illinois 3,840 people are on the waiting list for kidney donation, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . There are several factors that must be completed in organ donation: degree of medical emergency, length of time on the waiting list, tissue match and blood type, according to Transplant Living . The day-long organ transplant took place at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Friday. After the two recover they want to help find living donors for the some of the 84,000 people suffering from kidney failure, the Tribune reported. Post by: Sean Stillmaker
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Man Donates Kidney To Cahsier



Ben




March 28, 2010
The generosity of live organ donors is wonderful. It’s a shame we need so many live organ donors. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.
There is another good way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — if you don’t agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. About 50% of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 13,600 members, including 820 members in Illinois.
David J. Undis
Executive Director
LifeSharers
http://www.lifesharers.org