Hello. Wish I would have seen your post earlier.

When I was up for my transplant, I was listed at three different hospitals/regions. I would suggest teaching hospitals, in your surrounding states. That is what I did. Look up University hospitals with transplant teams and research them online. Look for the amount of transplants they do, that shows alot about the hospital. Usually the hospitals will have success rates right on there website. Also, I ended up having my transplant at the National Institutes of Health. It is a great research hospital about 5 hours from NYC in Washington DC. It is all government funded, so everything is free, including medications for at least 3 years post transplant. If money or insurance is a concern, that might be something to look into.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Hope your brother is doing well, I know how hard dialysis can be.

dearest Mrs. Ltd -- Thank you for taking the time out to reply. i really really appreciate it. it is very helpful.

congrats on getting your transplant! i hope all is going well.

ive been on the unos and OPTN website/ database and have been thoroughly overwelmed! thanx for the advice to start at teaching hospitals.

more questions:
1) why start at teaching hospitals?
2) since there are so many centers listed in a region (incl. teaching ones), what were the determining factors to choose one?
3) is there such a thing as a "shorter" waiting list at a center?
4) should i consider my bro's blood type B in choosing a center?
5) which 3 regions did you list in? which centers in each region. btw, i cant find NIH in region 2. do they have another name?
6) how long were you on dialysis? how long were you on the waiting list? im assuming you didnt have a living donor.

hmm.. i think that is it for now... once again, thank you for your support!

peace, shweta

Thanks for the Congrats! I have been doing great for 5 years now. I did have a living donor, but I didnt know if I would, and spent 2 years on dialysis. One year hemodialysis, and one year peritoneal. (I like peritoneal much better) I received my transplant alsmost 2 years to the day I got sick, and while I did have a donor, I was called 2 weeks after my transplant from the University of Michigan at 2am with a kidney for me. Of course I turned it down because I didnt need it, but my wait would have been two years regardless.

I mentioned teaching hospitals for a couple reasons. Personally, what I found was that they have higher standards in their procedures due to teaching students, and they are also in a more "cutting edge" as far as new approaches to transplant that allow people to be on less drugs, and overall let people live longer. Plus with the amount of staff/interns, you have more people on your indivual case, which to me meant more care. This is just my opinion though. Any University hospital would be "teaching".

As far as the wait. In Michigan our wait was 3-5 years approximately (I am b also) I was on the list at the Medical University of Ohio, and the wait there was 1-2 years, but I was put on that 2 months before my transplant, so I dont know how long for sure. NIH I believe has its own region or rules for the organs they receive, but I was on the list there for 1 year and hadnt received a call. I know this sounds horrible, but when I went to UMofToledo, the nurse there said there wait list was much shorter due to the fact that they do not have helmet laws. Not sure how factual that is, but that is the most I have heard as far as waiting list times.

I hope I have offered some info for you. Message me anytime.

Good luck,
Rebecca