Living kidney donations on the rise

TOBYHANNA, Pa. (WPVI) -- More than 6,500 Americans gave an incredible gift last year. They gave someone else a kidney.

We meet a man who just received that gift - and from someone he's never met.

As a diabetic, Len Gordon always kept watch on his kidneys.

Then he got COVID - and they began to fail, in spite of medication.

"The kidney continued to be getting worse and worse and worse," he said.

He became weak and always tired.

"I'll always be feeling sluggish, not myself," he remembers.

Doctors at Temple Health put Len on the list for a new kidney.

Four or five years later, on the edge of needing dialysis, he got a life-changing call.

"We have good news for you. So what is that? We have a living donor for you," he said. "I didn't even believe what she was saying, I was so shocked."

Transplant surgeon Antonio DiCarlo says kidney transplants are lifesavers; however, one from a living donor is ideal.

"No kidney works better, faster, or longer than a living kidney donation," Dr. DiCarlo said.

Anyone of any age can donate, as long as they are healthy.

"We have said no to 20-year-olds, and we've said yes to 73-year-olds," he said.

Dr. DiCarlo says it's a safe, easy-to-tolerate process.

"I perform it fully minimally invasive," adding that it's done through three one-half-inch incisions, plus a four-inch incision at the bikini line.

"So that we can pull the kidney out," he continues.

"We do this in the morning and by evening, you're walking, talking, eating," he said.

And most donors go home the next day.

Dr. DiCarlo says most living donors and recipients have some connection, whether it's family, friend, religious, workplace, or neighborhood.

At Temple, some donations come from patients with Nutcracker Syndrome, in which a kidney is threatened by a compressed vein.

Len's donor didn't match the friend she'd hoped to donate to.

"So she said she's gonna volunteer and just give it to somebody else who needs a kidney," he said.

Just six weeks after his transplant, the 68-year-old Len, a retired nurse, has regained much of his strength, and he's dreaming of travel to Africa and Europe.