What it’s Like to Donate a Kidney
It was in April or May 2014 when I first heard that my brother-in-law would soon need a new kidney. His doctors had told him that he would quickly have to start dialysis because an autoimmune disease destroyed both kidneys.
He had invited me, my wife and his children to barbecue and told us about it during the afternoon. The waiting period for a donor’s kidney in Germany at that time was up to eight years. During this time, his life would be severely restricted as he would have to go to dialysis three times a week for four hours each.
Then he explained to us the possibility of a living donation. In Germany, it is possible to donate a kidney to a relative or an emotionally or otherwise very attached person. Of course, he didn’t expect any of us to do that. Above all, he did not want any of his children to be exposed to this procedure.
But my wife and I spontaneously agreed to at least have his doctors test us to see if we could be considered as donors.
It wasn’t a question for me. Of course, I didn’t want to refuse this test. Whether I would then also agree to an operation, I did not know at this time, however, yet. I thought it was relatively unlikely that it…
