Kidney Paired Donation: 16 Patients, Four Hospitals, F...(ngth Santa this holiday season. ...),Health

"I'm looking forward to getting back my quality of life and getting back to where I used to be," Bruce says.

In Michigan, more than 2,400 people are waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the Gift of Life Michigan. Henry Ford, one of only two multi-organ transplant centers in Michigan, performed the first kidney transplant in Detroit in 1968. Through June, Henry Ford has performed 2,320 kidney transplants.

Lauren Malinzak, M.D., a Henry Ford transplant surgeon who led the Bruces' surgeries, says the paired kidney donation is an opportunity for Henry Ford to expand the reach for donated organs and to save lives.

"As the number of people on a transplant waiting list continues to outnumber available organs, we need to look for innovative ways to help our patients," Dr. Malinzak says.

The kidney paired donation began June 15 with an altruistic donor (individuals willing to donate a kidney to any needy recipient) donating a kidney to a recipient from one of the incompatible pairs at Johns Hopkins. That recipient's donor's kidney went to a recipient from a second pair and so on. The last remaining kidney from the final incompatible pair was donated by a patient at Barnes-Jewish to a recipient at Johns Hopkins on July 6.

Daniel Bruce was discharged from Henry Ford June 19; his wife was discharged June 24.

Sally Bruce, a nurse at the Courtney Manor Nursing Home in Bad Axe, initially was a compatible donor for her husband. But two weeks before the scheduled transplant, a test showed his body had built up immunity against her kidney enzymes, no longer making Sally a compatible donor for her husband.

When the Bruces were approached by a Henry Ford kidney transplant coordinator about the paired kidney option, both agreed to participate.

"There wasn't a decision to be
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