A Miraculous Match with Intermountain Health
Each April, the United States recognizes National Donate Life Month, bringing attention to organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation.
Donate Life month honors and recognizes those who have saved lives through the gift of organ donation. It is only through the generosity of donor families and donors that makes saving lives through organ transplantation possible. It is also a good time to share with your family your decision to be a donor, check the organ donor box when you renew your driver’s license, and consider the healing gift of sharing a living organ through the gift of transplantation.
Across the country, 104,000 people are currently on the transplant list, waiting for a kidney, liver, pancreas, heart or lungs. Every nine minutes another person is added to the wait list.
In Nevada, 667 people are on that waiting list. Tanisha Ellerbe, 50, from Las Vegas, Nevada, and a robotics and cyber security teacher at Liberty High School in Henderson was on that waiting list.
She loves her job, her family, and traveling. But for years, she was living with a chronic kidney disease that threatened to take away everything she cherished. She needed a kidney transplant to survive.
In November 2021, Tanisha’s kidney function was down to 19%. She registered at numerous transplant centers, hoping to find a donor. Her numbers continued to drop, even falling to 13% after she got COVID. She also started to experience symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and a metallic taste in her mouth. By June 2022, she was one of many transplant listed, but she knew it could take at least two years to get a kidney from a deceased donor. She prayed for a miracle.
That miracle came in the form of a living donor from Utah, who was also a teacher. She did not know Tanisha, but she wanted to help someone in need. She was not a good match for Tanisha, but she donated her kidney on July 5, 2023, as a Good Samaritan. This gave her a voucher that moved her up the priority list for a compatible kidney. Within just a few weeks, on July 21, she got a phone call from Intermountain Health that transplant coordinators had found a kidney for her. On August 15, she underwent a successful transplant surgery at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.
“People don’t realize how much of a life saver they can be. I am blessed,” Ellerbe said. “That gift was not done in vain. She saved my life and I encourage others to be living donors.”
Living Donation
Living donations saves thousands of lives each year. Living donors will donate a portion of their liver, which will then grow back or one of their kidneys.
Since the body can perform with just one kidney, it is the most commonly transplanted organ from a living donor. It’s also the best option for people who need a new kidney, it’s safe, and donors don’t have to be related to the recipient.
Five key benefits for participating in a living donor transplant include:
1. Every living donor transplant that occurs removes one person from the transplant waiting list and ensures that the next person on the list won’t have to wait as long for a deceased donor transplant.
2. Living donor kidneys tend to have greater longevity than those transplanted from a deceased donor
3. Surgery can be scheduled in advanced
4. Patients can get a living donor kidney transplant before starting dialysis
5. Patients spending less time on dialysis means better health
“On average, a living kidney transplant doubles the life expectancy of the recipient,” said Donald Morris, MD, nephrologist and Intermountain Health’s kidney transplant medical director. “It also greatly improves the quality of life while decreasing their overall health costs.”
National Kidney Registry
Intermountain’s Transplant Services at Intermountain Medical Center participates in a national registry that helps get the best optimally matched organ donors and recipients across the nation.
The National Kidney Registry (NKR) is a unique nationwide organ donor exchange program that facilitates paired exchanges, a process in which an organ donor donates their kidney to a recipient other than their loved one in exchange for a compatible kidney for their friend or loved one.
Donate a Kidney or a Liver – Save a Live
To sign up to become a living donor go to: www.IntermountainHealthcare.org/DonateLife
Don’t forget to share with your family your decision to share the gift of life. And don’t forget to check the organ donation box when you renew your license or go to the Nevada Donor Network website to register today.
For more information on any of your health needs, visit intermountainnv.org.
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