By Carol Fisher-Linn
Western NY Kidney Connection is a unique gift to Western New York. Donate a kidney – you only need one…
Before you decide not to read this article because you don’t have kidney disease, have no one in your life that has kidney disease, and you have no interest in hearing about something that doesn’t apply to you, I beg you to take a few minutes and read this. Here’s a startling fact from the National Kidney Foundation: “1 in 7 adults in US have kidney disease and 90% don’t know it.”
But let’s say you are not the one in seven, and you are a healthy person strolling around with two functioning kidneys. After you read this, you will discover that you could still be a healthy person strolling around with ONE kidney … and your spare kidney can save someone’s life.
A leading cause of death in the United States is chronic kidney disease, which affects almost 15% of adults and can lead to kidney failure. FACT: At any given time, nearly 90,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney transplant, and 11 people die every day waiting for a kidney. Please, let that sink in. 11 die every day … waiting.
The National Kidney Foundation has been working to advance kidney health information for 75 years. But for many of those years they have been operating under strict, outdated guidelines severely restricting the number of persons eligible to receive kidney transplants in the way it had been done in the past. The first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954. In 2025, an estimated 25,573 kidney transplants were performed in the United States, with 6,521 coming from living donors. Some of those stranger donations are “KPD” which matches incompatible pairs living donors, allowing those pairs to “Swap” donors with other incompatible pairs to achieve a medically compatible transplant, avoiding long waits on deceased donor lists.
True, people in kidney failure can continue to live. But those lives are not very productive or rewarding because they might be attached to a dialysis machine 3.5 hours a day for several days a week, severely limiting their lives. And affecting the lives of those in their immediate circle. And they continue to wait to be moved up on the list for a kidney donation from a recently deceased person. Then there is altruistic donation: a living donor is the Gold Standard. People who receive kidneys from living donors live longer.
As for the donor, a healthy person can live a full and healthy live with one kidney. “The human body is adaptable, and the remaining kidney is capable of compensating for the function normally performed by two. This natural ability allows individuals to maintain overall health and well-being, even with a reduced kidney mass. While having a single kidney necessitates mindful health management, it does not lead to a compromised life.”
Fortunately for individuals in need of a kidney in the WNY region, there exists the WNY Kidney Connection: a site for potential living kidney donors and people in need on the Buffalo waiting list to communicate. (KidneyConnection.org.) Currently this type of venue has been the meeting place for donors and recipients across the country. As co-founder, Jeanette Caprino says, “it’s kind of like a dating site for people looking for a donor.”
It’s personal for Caprino. When her son, Paul Cardinale first needed a kidney in 1994, he and his father were a match. In time, that kidney failed, and in 2006, Paul needed another transplant. Playing by the standard rules of the time and waiting for his name to come up on the Buffalo area list of donors obtained in the usual fashion, was not on option. Caprino was not a match, but she determined to make a way to find one. It turned out there had to be policy changes made by Kaleida Health, which was the region’s largest health care provider. Simply put (check the website for the full story under success stories (Paul’s), “It is because of her battling the establishment that Kaleida Health’s decision to allow “altruistic” organ donations cleared the way for Cardinale to receive a kidney [from a stranger in Alaska, William Thomas] after the two met over the Internet. Health officials believe it may have been the first such Internet-arranged transplant in the state.” (Buffalo News)
If you have reached a point in your life where you wonder how only one person can make a difference, donating a healthy kidney can literally save a life. Please consider at least looking into what it takes, read the stories of those who gave and received, and follow your conscience. All the information you need is right here: www.kidneyconnection.org.