Did you know there are organizations that will give a family a voucher for a transplant any time you need it, if someone in the family donates to a stranger?
The National Kidney Registry (NKR) Voucher Program allows a living kidney donor to choose the most convenient time frame for their kidney donation surgery and provide one or more vouchers to people who can then be prioritized to receive a living donor kidney through the NKR if/when they need a transplant.
Our daughter did this in her early thirties. She contacted the organization and was screened, then donated her kidney to a stranger. She received a voucher that anyone in her family could use whenever it was needed. My husband was getting to the stage where he needed dialysis, so he presented that voucher and got the ball rolling. Within a few months, he and his doctors had three healthy kidneys to choose from!
Sadly, the transplant doctors at the university hospital had never seen a voucher before! Why this isn’t publicized more, I don’t know. Maybe because organ donation is big business?
Thank you I’ll check into that. She is on Medicare for ESRD and they will pay for all of a living donor’s costs. We haven’t had much luck finding a living donor, maybe being out here in the sticks has something to do with it...she is on the transplant list at the University of Utah and they keep asking if we have a living donor but they have not mentioned that source...
I go down the VA in Salt Lake for treatments of prostate cancer due to agent orange exposure, so we are down there fairly often.
Thanks again I’ll definitely check into it.