Macomb Township Resident Benefits From Organ Donation Chain

Wednesday, Dec 27, a special group gathered at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit to celebrate the success of a series of kidney transplants. A man in Kalamazoo wanted to donate his kidney to save a friend’s daughter. Instead, his gift went to Shannon Brink, a Macomb Township resident whose own kidneys failed as the result of a childhood auto-immune disorder. Brink’s husband’s friend, Kara Dandar, was a match for Emily King, the Kalamazoo woman whose intended donor matched with Brink.

If all this sounds a bit confusing, the Henry Ford Health System has ways of straightening things out (including the above graphic). In total, five people received kidneys because of this chain of donated organs. Four of the surgeries were carried out by Henry Ford, and the patients have recovered in the three months since receiving transplants or donating organs. Henry Ford Health System says kidneys from living donors last an average of five years longer than those from the deceased. “Approximately half of transplanted kidneys from living donors function for 12 to 15 years,” according to the hospital’s website.

Read full coverage of this story in the Detroit Free Press.

Graphic via Henry Ford Health System.