'Domino' kidney transplant a success for MLA Conroy and husband
By Contributor
Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy is making a gradual return to work after she donated a kidney and her husband Ed underwent a successful kidney transplant. The couple participated in a Canada-wide ‘domino’ kidney transplant that involved six people. Ms. Conroy volunteered to donate a kidney to her husband, but was not a compatible donor for him, so instead donated to another matched recipient who also had a willing but incompatible donor.
That donor helped yet another unmatched pair, and Mr. Conroy ultimately received a new kidney.
Both Ed and Katrine Conroy have been released from hospital, and are doing fine. Mr. Conroy’s new kidney is already functioning better than doctors expected. The domino organ donations are made possible by the new national Living Donor Paired Exchange Registry, launched in January of 2009 by Canadian Blood Services. The first cross-Canada domino transplant took place in June 2009. The Registry allows existing living donor programs across the country to enter incompatible donor-recipient pairs; as the number of incompatible pairs increases, so too will the number of transplant opportunities allowing for more large-scale kidney exchanges and domino transplants. For more information on organ donation, visit www.transplant.bc.ca
