Getting Organ-ized

By Margaret Lyons in News on Apr 8, 2008 8:35PM

Four people got new kidneys today from living-donor transplants at Northwestern in what doctors there call a "domino exchange," in which donors "agreed to give a kidney to a stranger in exchange for a compatible kidney from an unrelated donor for their sick relative." Like a big old organ web of sharing and caring. Living-donor kidneys are the best kinds of kidneys to get, and donors lead totally normal lives afterwards.

April is National Donate Life month. Here in Illinois, if you registered as an organ donor before January 2006, you need to reregister to make sure your wishes are carried out. Donate Life Illinois is trying to register 3.5 million donors by the end of the month, and although they're using a weird, scary organ mascot named Morgan D'Organ to do it (pictured), it's an important initiative. There are nearly 100,000 people waiting for organ transplants in the US right now, and more than 6,000 of them die every year. One donor can help 25 people.