Tory M. Kapple

What You Get Out Of The Deal:

Truthfully, there isn’t much that can legally be offered to a potential donor, which is a good thing! Recipients are not allowed to offer any sort of financial compensation for your donation or any financial incentive to persuade you, such as a promise of a job, commodities, or investments. This helps us avoid human organ trafficking and medical coercion that could effect the donors health, as well as protect marginalized groups from being exploited; such as racial and ethnic minorities, disenfranchised people like prisoners, people living below the poverty line, and immigrants.
The only thing you get is an altruistic opportunity to keep someone else alive. Like me!

Who Pays The Costs?

Medicare and/or the recipients insurance covers the entire cost for both the recipient and donors surgery and procedures. You as the donor will not receive any medical bills! Unfortunately, there are things Insurance does not cover, like travel, gas, lost wages from taking time off, lodging, or food costs. However, There are several organizations who evaluate your financial loss and need and can reimburse you or cover these costs for you, if necessary, like kidneyfund.org and https://www.kidney.org. You can find these organizations listed in the Resources.

What Does Recovery Look Like?

Given that Tory’s home Hospital, OHSU, is in Portland, Oregon, the hospital may ask you to stay within the state of Oregon during recovery to ensure they can monitor your wellbeing closely. According to the Mayo Clinic, most donors are back to their regular work and activities in between 2-4 weeks, meaning the amount of time you spend away from work or or responsibilities would likely be very short. Although for a few weeks after the official recovery period ends, patients may be advised to avoid doing extremely strenuous or dangerous activities, such as full contact sports or heavy lifting to avoid causing damage to your healing body.

If for some reason you cannot leave your state and need Tory to come to you, the process may take much longer than expected to facilitate the donation properly. This may be a complicated and frustrating process for both the donor and recipient, so we recommend travelling to Oregon for the smoothest possible experience. Need your travel, housing, and lost wages covered? See the Who Pays The Cost? section for more information on getting reimbursement.

Risks and Complications:

According to the American Kidney Fund, “As a kidney donor, your risk of having kidney failure later in your life is not any higher than it is for someone in the general population of a similar age, sex or race.”
Kidney donation is a very safe and common procedure, however there are some things to consider. As is the case with any and all major surgeries, there are some possible complications and side effects. If you’re concerned about how surgery could potentially effect your body, you can check out what those look like here.

Additionally, According to the American Kidney Fund Organization, On average, donors only lose about 25-35% of their total kidney function after surgery. This means you can retain about 75% of your total kidney function after donating one to someone else. Donation most likely will not majorly impact your quality of life, but may require simple and easy lifestyle alterations like a reduced salt diet, or other general healthy practices. Meaning you can still live a long and fulfilling life after donation.

What Does Donor Testing Look Like?

The transplant team will carefully evaluate if you are a good candidate to donate a kidney and will not accept your kidney if they believe there is a high risk of harm or complications based on your lifestyle, health, or general genetics. Keeping you alive is more important than accepting your organ donation. So rest easy, they have your best interest in mind. You can read more about the process in a pamphlet from OHSU found here.
You will likely have to undergo tests such as:

• Blood tests
• Urine tests
• Pap smear/ gynecological exam
• Colonoscopy (if over age 50)
• Screening tests for cancer
• Antibody test
• X-ray
• Electrocardiogram (EKG) which looks at your heart
• Other image testing like a CT scan
• You are also required to meet with a psychologist and an Independent Living Donor Advocate to be sure you are mentally and emotionally ready to donate one of your kidneys.

(American Kidney Fund, Kidney Donation and Transplant, 2024)

Can’t Donate Your Kidney But Still Want To Help?