Matching Organ Donors
Reported March 11, 2008
BOSTON, Mass. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Two strangers matched up on the internet, but it wasn’t for love. It was to save a life. Every day, 17 people in the United States die waiting for an organ donation. Now, those who need a transplant are turning to the internet to find a donor.
Jenny Warden was diagnosed with lupus when she was just 21 years old.
“I had a job. I had everything going for me, and then all of a sudden, this hits me,” Warden recalls.
At first, the lupus was manageable, but then things quickly took a turn for the worse.
“I started swelling up,” Warden says. “I gained 60 pounds in fluid within about a week. It was crazy!”
Warden’s kidneys could no longer work on their own, which left her only one option: she needed a transplant. So she created a profile on MatchingDonors.com — a website designed to match people in need of a transplant with potential donors. It’s different from the national transplant list and it’s not designed to take away from it.
“The national list is a deceased donor list, and we’re a living organ donor list,” says Paul Dooley, CEO and founder of MatchingDonors.com. “We’re taking from two different pools of donors, and also, we’re raising a lot of donor awareness.”
Today, there are more than 98,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. MatchingDonors.com has successfully set up more than 60 transplants and has more than 4,600 potential donors registered.
Within a few weeks, Warden got a message that would change her life.
“He’s married, and he lives in Peoria, Illinois, and he’s keeping a kidney warm for me,” she says.
The message was from Jason — a complete stranger who saw Warden’s profile and wanted to help. A few weeks later, Jason made the trip to California to give Warden one of his kidneys.
“That night he got in the car, and it was instantaneous. We got along. It was great,” Warden recalls.
The transplant went off without a hitch! To Warden, the scar from the transplant is a daily reminder of the blessing she received.
The cost to create a profile on MatchingDonors.com is a lifetime membership of $595, most of which goes toward travel and accommodations for donors.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
MatchingDonors
http://www.matchingdonors.com