What's Up With a Kidney Donation Post?

I know this has nothing to do with web design, SEO, social media, or technical gadgets. However, my father and sister, a little over a year and a half ago, donated their kidneys to my uncle and a receiver from West Virginia. It was a cross-donation.

Here's the skinny: My father wanted to donate his kidney to my uncle - his wife's brother, 10 years in dialysis - but was not a match. My little sister stepped up and got tested and was a match for my uncle. But since my dad still wanted to give, he had his tests compared and sent out and matched a guy in WV. That guy came up for the surgery, four went under, two came out one kidney less, two woke up with something that would make their lives better for a very long time. The compatibility was so good that my uncle's kidney flushed pink with blood and started working immediately on the operating table. A year and a half later, everything is good, and both donatees are living a much better life because of it.

But this post isn't to brag or blog about my father and sister. They were small potatoes compared to this story:

Kidney Paired Donation: 16 Patients, Four Hospitals, Four States
Henry Ford Hospital is the first in Michigan to participate in a domino donor kidney transplant in which eight patients received a new kidney from eight unrelated donors at four hospitals in four states.

Surgeries were performed on four separate days at Henry Ford, The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis as donated kidneys were transported by airplane to their intended recipients under a Kidney Paired Donation.

It is believed to be the largest series of kidney paired donation procedures performed in the United States. All eight donors - five women and three men - and eight organ recipients - five women and three men - are either in good or fair condition.

Organ donation is damn important in our country. And how easily it can be expanded is frightening. Make a commitment, at least on your license.

Make a difference.