NorCal Hospital Performs 10-Person Kidney Swap
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Five people have received healthy kidneys from five donors in what may be among the largest kidney exchanges at a single hospital in California.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the swap took place on Friday during a series of operations at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
The procedure is known as a paired donation. It brings together transplant candidates with loved ones who aren't compatible with them but are willing to donate a kidney on their behalf to strangers in the same situation. The pairs are then matched.
Dr. Steve Katznelson, medical director of California Pacific's kidney transplant program, said the hospital had never completed a swap involving so many donors and recipients before.
The patients are doing well and are expected to be released early next week.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
