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Can you donate a kidney to someone with kidney failure?
A kidney donation is when a person with 2 healthy, functioning kidneys undergoes surgery to give 1 kidney to a person with late or end stage renal disease. You may already know that you can register to be an organ donor and your organs, eyes and skin can save up to 8 lives after you pass away.
What is the side effect if your kidney is only one?
Most people with a single kidney live a normal life without developing any long- or short-term problems. However, the risk of developing mild high blood pressure, fluid retention, and proteinuria is slightly higher if you have one kidney instead of two.
Can a donor survive with one kidney?
After one kidney is removed for donation, the remaining kidney undergoes a process known as “Compensatory Hypertrophy” i.e. it increases in size and takes over the function of the other kidney as well. The donor leads a normal life after donation.
What is the advantage of having two kidneys?
They help your bones stay healthy, tell your body when to make new blood cells, and even help you stay upright when you’re walking around all day by taking care of your blood pressure. With all those important functions, scientist think having two kidneys must be important for our survival.
How can I donate a kidney to a friend?
Donating To Someone You Know If the potential recipient has been approved for a transplant, then any potential living donors can contact the transplant center the recipient is working with to ask about donation. Ask to speak with the “Kidney Transplant Coordinator” about the possibility of donating.
Can you have more than 2 kidneys?
“It’s extremely rare for additional kidneys to be complete. One in a million is probably about right,” says Niaz Ahmad, a transplant surgeon at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.
Does both kidneys work together?
It is true, you can live with only one kidney. Some people are born with only one because the other one did not grow properly. Other times, the two kidneys touch each other when they are first growing and join together, making one kidney shaped like a horseshoe.