A Chicago doctor is being praised for an act of selflessness after she helped two people who were on the organ donor waitlist, one of whom she gave her own kidney.
Dr. Aleksandra Gmurczyk helped take two of the more than 90,000 people off the kidney waitlist after she donated her kidney to a woman who she has never met and launched a kidney-paired donation — a practice in which someone willing to donate their kidney but isn’t a good match for the person they want to donate to, swaps recipients with another donor.
In February, Gmurczyk’s kidney was donated to a Virginia woman who Northwestern Medicine says had kidneys that were “hard to match.” Then, the patient’s husband, who was not a match for his wife, donated his kidney to a Northwestern Medicine patient, CNN reported.
Gmurczyk, a nephrologist, spoke with CNN about the donation, saying she “did not want to donate specifically to one person.”
The National Kidney Foundation reports that it usually takes three to five years for a patient to be matched with a kidney donor.
When patients experience kidney failure, their organ is unable to filter waste and toxins from their bloodstream. As a way to counteract this while waiting for a donor organ, the National Kidney Foundation notes that many will undergo dialysis, a treatment that removes waste and extra fluids from the blood, which is often very taxing on the patient.
“It’s like a part-time job,” Gmurczyk said. “It is stressful, and it is sad, and they feel isolated and lonely. Many of them work, but not many of them can.”
Gmurczyk says that she went through with the donation to help educate her patients about the danger and risk of kidney failure. She says many don’t trust the transplant process, but she wants them to see that the process is safe and can help improve their lives.
“The reason why I wanted to donate is that … I can go to them and say, ‘I donated my kidney, and I believe that people who receive a kidney transplant live longer healthier lives, and I believe in this so much that I donated,’” she said.
While there are always risks with surgery, Gmurczyk says she only needed to take two weeks off work before she was back to normal.
“I was able to take care of my dog the next day,” she said. “I was doing everything for myself.”
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