THE number of kidney transplants involving living donors has more than doubled in Scotland, new figures show.
A total of 28 transplants took place over 2018/19 through the UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme, compared to ten the previous year, an increase of 180 per cent.
When a donor and recipient know each other but are not a match, they are paired with another donor and recipient in the same situation who ‘swap’ donors.
In Jim McIntosh’s case a three-way match was identified, with Jim’s wife Lorna donating her kidney to a patient she matched with, in order for Jim to receive the transplant that transformed his life.
They were joined on World Kidney Day by Professor David Manlove of the University of Glasgow, whose work has helped improve the matching process.
Scotland will change to an opt-out transplant system in the Autumn, whereby consent will generally be assumed if an individual has now expressed an objection in their lifetime. However, family will still be consulted about the decision.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here