Mikel Prieto, M.D., has helped hundreds of donors give the gift of life through transplant surgery at Mayo Clinic. He has learned from experience what kidney donors can expect post-surgery.
If you're considering becoming a donor, Dr. Prieto's observations just might help you make up your mind. Hear what he knows about the safety and immense rewards of being a living kidney donor.
We asked a Mayo Clinic expert: What are the risks and rewards of being a living kidney donor?
Mikel Prieto, M.D., Transplant Surgery: Well, first of all, I am a transplant surgeon and I also do a lot of donor surgeries. Meaning I take the kidneys out of perfectly healthy people who don't need the surgery and give them to their loved ones or their friends. So I would only do this because I am confident that I'm not hurting the donor.
So the first message that I tell my patients is, I am confident that you will be fine after you donate a kidney. We do this all the time. We do these five, six times a week. And if we were hurting people, the donors, I mean, we would stop doing it.
So when people are thinking about potentially being a kidney donor, they have to realize that it will also be satisfying for them, because they will feel really good. This is one of the few things in life you can do to change somebody else's life. If you see a kid drowning in the beach and jump in and get that kid out and save the kid's life, you feel really good about it, right? Well, I would think that donating a kidney to a friend or loved one, or even a stranger, is the same kind of feeling. That thanks to you, this person will have a new life.
Especially if you know that person well, if it's a spouse or someone you're going to see every day and every year, for many years, that person enjoy life. And you're going to think, rightfully, he's having all this wonderful life thanks to me. It's hard to match that kind of feeling. That's why it's called the gift of life.
Dr. Prieto has helped hundreds of donors give the gift of life through transplant surgery.
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