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Michaela Dicks, pictured right, is the Living Renal Donor Co-ordinator
Purpose
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To develop and promote a living kidney donation programme for the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust.
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Maximise the choices of treatment for patients with chronic kidney disease.
About Living Kidney Donation
Living Donors are often a close relative such as a parent, brother or sister, son or daughter but may also be people who are not related but have an established relationship with the recipient such as a partner or close friend.
Sometimes the donor and recipient may be incompatible with each other because of blood group or tissue type and in this case it may be possible for them to be paired with another donor and recipient in the same situation. This means that each recipient will benefit from a transplant that they otherwise would not have had (this is called paired donation). Where more than two pairs are involved in the swap it is called pooled donation.
Donors may also offer to give a kidney to someone who is on the waiting list but whom they have never met before (this is called non-directed altruistic donation).
Living transplantation has become more important because of the shortage of donated organs from deceased donors and the steadily increasing number of people needing a transplant.
What I do
Ensure potential donors safety by co-ordinating all medical investigations and ensuring all legal aspects of living donation are fulfilled.
Ensure the potential donors and recipients are fully informed.
Provide specialist expert advice and support to patients, families and staff on issues relating to living kidney donation.
Lead and organise all aspects of donation including clinical assessment and care provision, working closely with the multidisciplinary team at the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust and the regional transplant centres.
Nurse led clinics are run in the medical out patients department to inform, counsel and clinically assess potential kidney donors.
Contact
Telephone 01392 406361
Page: #6109 (Working Monday-Friday but often off site)
Letter to The Kidney Unit
Email: m.dicks@nhs.net
Further Reading
UK Transplant: www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/
Human Tissue Act: www.hta.gov.uk/about_hta/human_tissue_act.cfm
British Transplant Society: www.bts.org.uk/
Exeter Kidney Unit