While awaiting passage of a federal Living Donor Protection Act (LDPA), more than half of states now have their own version (28 at last count). In fact, like North Carolina, some actually are more generous than the federal version (by including paid leave for state employees who donate). But the LDPA is just one way that states can encourage living donation. Financial supports and job protections are other critical ones. Are you considering being a living donor, or have you donated recently? Do you know what the relevant tax provisions and protections are in your state–or in a state you may ..read more

Being informed that you require an organ transplant can be an extremely difficult and traumatic experience for anyone. This can be further complicated if English is not your first language, or if you have a uncertain immigration status. The healthcare system in the U.S. is notoriously difficult to navigate. Furthermore, the global COVID-19 Pandemic has underscored the healthcare inequities experienced by marginalized communities. In this Hispanic Heritage month series, we will profile several brave individuals who are currently going through the fight of their lives. Due to several factors ..read more

(Read Spanish version here.)  Being informed that you require an organ transplant can be an extremely difficult and traumatic experience for anyone. This can be further complicated if English is not your first language, or if you have a tenuous immigration status. The healthcare system in the U.S. is notoriously difficult to navigate. Furthermore, the global COVID-19 Pandemic has underscored the healthcare inequities experienced by marginalized communities. In this Hispanic Heritage month series, we will profile several brave individuals who are currently going through the fight of thei ..read more

(Read Spanish version here.) Being informed that you require an organ transplant can be a difficult and traumatic experience for anyone. This can be further complicated if English is not your first language, or if you were not born in the United States. The healthcare system in the U.S. is notoriously difficult to navigate. Furthermore, we have seen a magnification of health care inequities as result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In this Hispanic Heritage month series, we will profile several brave individuals who are currently going through the fight of their lives. As in many communitie ..read more

For a family, the practical benefits can be as concrete as money in the bank. A spouse or parent whose ability to work was limited by dialysis for a long period may gradually be able to resume a full-time schedule–maybe even launch a new career. That can substantially improve the family’s ailing financial health as well. For family caregivers, particularly, donating a kidney to the loved one you’ve been caring for can bring huge relief. The reduced stress and no doubt improved sleep can have considerable benefits in energy, mood, overall outlook, and, as a result, even job satisfaction. Se ..read more

Long before kidney donor Carol Offen was a donation advocate and co-author of The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, she was a writer and an editor. After college, she worked as a country music magazine editor and writer before moving to France with her husband and giving birth to her son. For nearly a decade she wrote freelance articles on French actresses, dining, travel, and other topics, which appeared in Esquire, Vogue, Family Circle, and the International Herald Tribune; several were syndicated worldwide. When her family returned to the United States in the mid-80s, they settle ..read more

Organ transplantation is a highly specialized field of study with an equally small community of doctors, researchers, medical professionals, and activists. Still, there are minority pioneers who are working to not only promote organ donation (while hoping to dispel misinformation that keeps African Americans from considering organ donation and transplantation) but to also advance the field of study. These leaders, who are in direct conversation with minority groups that are normally left out of the larger conversation on America’s lack of organ donations, see the inequalities and are committ ..read more

A coalition of four historically Black medical colleges and universities has announced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of African American registered organ donors, training more Black transplant surgeons, and eradicating inequalities among transplant recipients. The consortium—which consists of HBCU medical schools—Charles R. Drew University of Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine—the Organ Donation Advocacy Group, and the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations—hopes to create opportunities for Afric ..read more

I was lucky. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but I underwent two liver transplants before turning 28. And while I waited approximately 19 months for each donation, I got them before dying a preventable death. Many patients awaiting donors aren’t as fortunate. In fact, 17 Americans die each day waiting for an organ that’s too slow to come. One of the most complex medical advancement of our time continues—roughly 70 years after its first introduction—to be shrouded in misinformation.  And no other group is more adversely impacted than African Americans and Hispanics, who, already us ..read more

Hello, I’m Bill Catlette. For 8 years I’ve been on the board of directors of the National Foundation for Transplants, a national, Memphis-based nonprofit that advocates for organ and tissue transplant patients and helps them raise critically needed funds for uncovered expenses associated with getting and living with a transplant. Several years ago, my wife and I learned that our then 30-some year-old daughter, Mother to 5, and wife of a US Coast Guardsman was in kidney failure, and by virtue of other health conditions, wasn’t a candidate for a transplant. In other words, barring a miracle, k ..read more