Written by Martha Gershun, Guest Blogger How old is too old to donate a kidney? Well, Frank Dewhurst of Austin, TX was 84 years old when he successfully donated a kidney in 2019 at Houston Methodist Hospital, making him the oldest person in the United States to become a living kidney donor. Frank graciously consented to a virtual interview with me, a living donor myself, to share more about his journey to becoming a living …
Does age matter?
Written by Martha Gershun, Guest Blogger “I’m probably too old to be a kidney donor,” is a very common concern for those considering living donation. I know age was very much on my mind when, at age 60, I volunteered to donate to a 56-year-old woman I read about in our local newspaper. I had recently received a letter from Be The Match®, the national bone marrow donor registry informing me that I would “age …
Let’s give living donors a checklist
Written by Martha Gershun, Guest Blogger When I first called the transplant center to offer to donate one of my kidneys to a woman I read about in the newspaper, I didn’t know anything about the process. There were a few paragraphs on the center’s website on a page labeled “Living-donor transplantation.” That was it. When I called the phone number in the newspaper, I assumed I would learn more. But the person who answered …