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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A rare medical procedure involving twelve patients, six kidney transplants and two days of surgery is set to take place at a San Francisco hospital.
California Pacific Medical Center surgeon Dr. William Bry said the "kidney paired donations" will be possible thanks to an altruistic donor who started a chain of donations, KGO-TV reported Wednesday (http://abc7ne.ws/1B5bshp).
Zully Broussard of Sacramento agreed to give a kidney to a man who has a relative willing to donate a kidney but was not compatible with him. That man's relative, in turn, will donate a kidney to a patient who also has a relative or friend willing to donate but unable to because of compatibility issues. This chain of donations continues until the remaining four people needing transplants get kidneys.
Broussard said her son died of cancer 13 years ago and her husband passed away 14 months ago, also from cancer.
"I know what it feels like to want an extra day," she said when asked why she volunteered to donate a kidney to a stranger.
Three transplants are planned for Thursday and the remaining three on Friday. Most of those involved are from the San Francisco Bay Area.
"I thought I was going to help this one person who I don't know, but the fact that so many people can have a life extension, that's pretty big," Broussard said.
This paired kidney exchange is achieved thanks to a software called MatchGrid, developed by David Jacobs, who is a kidney recipient.
He uses a very sophisticated algorithmic program that takes a person's genetic profile and finds potential matches.
Once the matches are confirmed, doctors, nurses and case managers work on the logistics of making it a reality.
"We can give them almost real-time results so you can play with , play what if, check out all the possible combinations," Jacobs said.
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