Intermountain Press Release

Salt Lake City—SALT LAKE CITY - The lives of three Utah families have forever been changed by the generous act of organ donation, but not in the way they had originally planned. Now, thanks to a spirit of generosity and a new program at LDS Hospital that is designed to address the chronic shortage of organs, there is new hope for Utahns in dire need of kidney transplantation.

Last week the kidney transplant program at LDS Hospital - ranked this year by U.S. News and World Report magazine as one of the top kidney programs in the nation - performed the first living-donor paired exchange transplant in the Intermountain West. This novel approach, used for the first time in Utah, allows patients with kidney failure who have willing but unsuitable donors to exchange kidneys. Both patients get transplanted and both donors give kidneys. The difference is that the donor gives to a different person than he or she may have originally expected to donate to. In cases where a patient in need of a kidney has a willing donor that does not match another pair, then his or her donor donates to another suitable recipient and their loved one moves to the top of the waiting list for their blood type. New hope for kidney patients "This new approach gives hope to patients waiting for a kidney because it has the potential of significantly increasing the number of living-donor transplants and the quality of matches between donors and recipients," says Dr. LeGrand Belnap, transplant surgeon and director of the transplant program at LDS Hospital.

In the first case performed at LDS Hospital on July 3, GiGi Allred of Orem was willing to donate a kidney to her sister Candace Lindquist of Springville, but was incompatible. Through the new exchange program, GiGi donated a kidney to another recipient on the waiting list who was a perfect match. That person, Jennifer Morison of Tooele, received GiGi's kidney and is doing well. Because of GiGi's donation, Candace was bumped to the top of the list for her blood type. She then received a kidney from Kristen Bylund, a student at Brigham Young University, who was a Good Samaritan Donor. A Good Samaritan Donor is someone who donates a kidney to a suitable donor on this list, someone they don't know. All the recipients and donors are now doing well as they recover.

A living-donor transplant, where the patient receives a kidney from a live person (most commonly a relative or friend), provides better organ function than deceased donor kidney transplantation. As a result, the number of living kidney donors continues to grow. Since 2001, the number of living-organ donors has surpassed deceased donors.

All four participants were admitted to LDS on July 3; all four surgeries went well

"The neatest thing for me was the very next day after the surgery those two (her sister Candace and Jennifer, who'd received her kidney) came be-bopping the hall with color in their faces," says GiGi. "It was worth every single ounce of everything you go through."

"To say it's a gift is a little bit of an understatement," added Jennifer, who'd been on dialysis since 2005. "I had forgotten what it was like to be a normal person."

"Programs like this are one reason why LDS Hospital was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best kidney centers in the United States," says Mikelle Moore, CEO of LDS Hospital. "This is a great reflection of the innovation and ingenuity that makes our kidney team so successful."

For more information on the program, call the Intermountain Transplant Program at LDS Hospital at 408-3090.