In what is being called world's longest kidney transplant chain, a group of patients and Good Samaritans recently paid it forward in a very real way.
In an unheard of account of generosity, 30 kidney donors from around the country gave 30 recipients new leases on life, according to news reports. The effort involved 17 hospitals, 11 states, four months and countless prayers.
It all started with a Good Samaritan in California who donated a kidney to a recipient in New Jersey, according to HLN affiliate WLS-TV. The chain then zigged and zagged across the country until it stopped at Loyola University Hospital, the 12th link in the chain, the station reported.
Midway through the chain, in the nation’s heartland, we find two patients: Paulette Behan of Chicago who got a transplant in September. And Don Terry, 47, of Joliet, Illinois.
"Going to dialysis was another part-time job," Terry told WLS. "I was getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning to be at work by 6:30 to be a dialysis are 3 o'clock and to get home by 8 o'clock at night."
"I feel incredibly different," Behan told WLS. "I have so much energy I can do all of the things that I quit doing because I did not have the energy, and it is all because of people coming forward and giving their kidneys."
In an ideal case a patient with kidney disease would ask a close relative to donate their organ. But in recent years, complete strangers -- Good Samaritans – have stepped up to give of themselves so that others may live. The selfless acts have created beads of kidney chains throughout the United States.
In 2009, a kidney chain resulted in at least 10 people getting a donor organ.
Kidney chains may eventually stop, but they don't have to. Behan's sister kept the link going when she donated to a stranger after being told she was not a match for Behan, WLS reported.
"Traditionally, we would have just said, 'I am sorry. Your loved one is going to have to wait,'" Behan said. "But now, we can get people transplanted at Loyola as quickly as possible with the best-managed kidneys."
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