In 2020, Meghan Curran, RN, (right) was prepared to donate a kidney to her former colleague, Pat Lucia, RN, (left) but was not a match. Curran’s kidney went to someone she didn’t know, but her actions moved Lucia up on the transplant list. Lucia has since passed away, but thanks to Curran and another donor, she enjoyed more time with family.
“When one door closes another opens …”
This quote, credited to telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, is particularly true with living organ donation. Five years ago, Meghan Curran, RN, clinical program manager, Urology Clinic, found that out.
She became interested in organ donation when Yale New Haven Hospital’s Center for Living Organ Donors was in the same area of the Yale Physicians Building as the Urology Clinic. Her interest morphed into action when two people she knew needed a kidney, including her then-colleague, Pat Lucia, RN.
Curran underwent testing but wasn’t a match for Lucia or the other person. She donated a kidney anyway, to someone she didn’t know. Her donation moved Lucia up on the transplant recipient list, and she received a kidney a year later.
Lucia has since passed away, but the transplant “gave her extra time with her kids and grandkids,” Curran said. “I’m glad that I donated, and I would do it all over again.”
Another positive outcome of an incompatible donor-recipient situation is a “paired donation.” In this scenario, a donor and their intended recipient – call them “pair A” – aren’t a match. Another donor and recipient – “pair B” – also aren’t a match. But the Yale New Haven Transplantation Center team might discover that donor A is compatible with recipient B, and donor B is compatible with recipient A. If all agree to the pairing, the transplants can take place. In some cases, multiple donors and recipients are involved in an organ exchange.
Of course, things can go as planned with organ donation, and when a living donor’s organ is transplanted into their intended recipient, they can save more than one life. That’s because the donation removes the recipient from the transplant waiting list, allowing others on the list to move up.
In 2021, when Nina Purslow learned that a family member needed a kidney she didn’t hesitate to sign up for testing. She was a match, and Yale New Haven Transplantation Center surgeons transplanted her kidney into her family member. Her family member “is doing great,” she said.
Like Curran, Purslow said she would go through the process again.
“If anyone is on the fence about becoming an organ donor, I would encourage them to do it,” she said. “The team at the Transplantation Center is amazing.”
April is Donate Life Month. Learn more about organ donation and register to become an organ donor
