HOUSTON — Twelve strangers met in Houston on Wednesday to celebrate the gift of life on National Donor Day.
Six kidney donors and six recipients who are part of an organ swap program at UTHealth met for the first time. It was an emotional time for all.
Patients may have a donor willing to give a kidney, but it doesn't mean they are a match. If they're not a fit, that donor would end up giving to someone else and the original patient would have to find another match.
A national registry would help find matches.
Evin Bailey and his childhood best friend and donor, Montel Johnson, were among the people at Wednesday's event.
Bailey and Johnson met at church when they were just 7.
"He told me one day, 'Hey, what is it going take for you to get back straight? What is it gonna take for you to get right? To get off dialysis?' I said, 'Robert, really I need a kidney. That's the only way for me to go back to a normal life.' He said, 'Well, I got you. I'm gonna donate a kidney.' I thought he was playing," Bailey said.
Johnson ended up donating to a stranger and Bailey got a kidney from someone else. They both met their matches on Wednesday.
In Texas, the transplant wait list is five to seven years. A living donor swap means a patient gets to bypass the list and often can receive a transplant in months instead of years.