This was a big week on the Kidney Transplant front for my son Asaf. The final administrative hurdle for a potential live donor is a meeting with the National Transplant Committee. This group of professionals interviews the candidate donor, the recipient and the recipients family to see if they should approve or deny the transplant. The committee consists of health care professionals. There was a male doctor, and five women; a social worker, a psychiatrist, a nurse, and two others. (I expect that one of them was a lawyer). The setting was imposing, with the committee on one side a table and a stenographer on the side. The interviewee sat facing them.
The main purpose behind the committee is to reject donors who are coerced into donating, either through payments of money, or other pressures. I fully support their efforts in this arena. I have received numerous emails from people offering to sell us a kidney in exchange for helping them out of some financial crisis.
Fortunately, our potential donor(s) are all altruistic. They live in an upper middle class/lower upper class neighborhood and none of them have asked for anything in return. I expect that the committee interview would focus on this issue.
Only three people testified to the committee, the donor, Asaf and my wife. For whatever reason, I was not needed. After the interviews/testimony, we were told that they would have an answer for us in two weeks.
So, did we pass or not? We don't know. My wife chose to take a pessimistic view of the proceedings. She is worried that the donor will be rejected for other reasons, unrelated to finance or health. We will not know until we receive official notice.
If the committee accepts the donor, then things will move rather fast, but right now, its all on hold.
Wish us luck and health,
Elliot, Leiah and Asaf
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