Officer’s Kidney Donation Leads To Lifesaving Chain Of Events

After hearing about the website matchingdonors.com in a podcast about a transplant, Anna Cuthbertson was intrigued. The U.S. Army veteran and San Francisco police officer learned more and after finding out the risks were lower and the procedure was less invasive than she thought, she wanted to become a donor herself.

Cuthbertson decided to help 64-year-old Joan Grealis after finding her profile on the website, but after eight months of testing, the women learned they weren’t a match. But they were put into a registry of pairs of people who want to donate and receive organs but aren’t a match for each other. And Cuthbertson was eventually matched to a stranger, whose donor, in turn, matched perfectly with someone else. The chain eventually included 18 people, nine donors and nine recipients, including Grealis.

Grealis had a successful transplant the same day Cuthbertson’s kidney donation was done. “If I could highlight one thing about all of this, it’s that it’s so easy,” Cuthbertson explains. “If people just did more research about it, they could really help save a life.”

Source: San Francisco Gate


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