Living Organ Donation

Patients medically cleared to proceed with a kidney transplant will be put on a waiting list.  This involves entering their names and medical information into the national database managed by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Although New York only allows a patient to be listed at one transplant program in the state it is possible for the same patient to be listed at other transplant programs outside of New York at the same time.

There are two types of organ donation:

Living Donor:

A living donor transplant is when a healthy person donates one of their two kidneys to someone whose kidneys no longer work. A person can live a full, healthy life with just one healthy kidney.

Deceased Donor:

The Upstate Transplant Program works with organ procurement organizations to accept kidneys from deceased donors. Deceased donor kidneys are offered to patients based on their age, time on dialysis, and presence of diabetes, or previous transplants.

The individual risk of accepting such a kidney will be discussed in detail with you, by your transplant surgeon or nephrologist, and the pretransplant coordinator. Other so-called “extended criteria” kidneys will also be discussed in detail with you. We want to assure you that your wellbeing pre-, intra- and post-transplant is our highest priority.