This journey started for me when somebody in our community reached out asking for a kidney donation. After a brief review of our current state of technology, I decided that donating a kidney was something I wanted to do.
What confused me is why more people don't.
I was surprised at how big the kidney shortage problem was, and the more I looked into it, the more perplexing the problem seemed. In a country with 330M people or so, we have 100k people waiting for kidney donors. It seemed that there simply had to be enough kidneys to go around...yet transplant surgeries are predominantly cadaver kidneys, with live donors making a small fraction of the woefully insufficient number of surgeries. And, as I investigated more and more....the story doesn't change fundamentally. There are enough spare kidneys for everyone who needs one. Having your kidney removed is really no big deal. And people die every day waiting for a kidney.
The idea of this film is to document my own journey, along with my recipient's, and to put it into the context of the larger problem, and encourage others to consider donation as well. We will put together an accurate, clear, comprehensive picture of the issue, examining from all sides, and present a strong case for why the kidney shortage is not only a solvable problem.....it's really a small problem. One we can solve easily...with an awareness campaign and a small shift in our thinking.
The shift is this: donating a kidney is not a sacrifice, it's an honor! Who wouldn't want to save a life? Why is there a list of people waiting to recieve? There should be a list of people waiting to donate!
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