Howard Broadman understood his grandson, born with one partially functioning kidney, may eventually need a transplant. Broadman just didn’t know if he’d be alive, or healthy enough, to donate when the time came.
So, the retired California judge proposed a solution: he’d give his organ to someone who needed it now in exchange for his grandson, Quinn Gerlach, to be given priority for a live donor kidney down the road.
The National Kidney Registry took to the idea and now has about 30 hospitals around the country participating in the voucher program. At least 21 kidneys have been donated in exchange for vouchers, according to the registry.
“If Quinn had needed the kidney right away, I was going to donate my kidney,” Broadman told Kaiser Health News. “But once he didn’t need it right away, I thought, why not pay it forward and maybe karma would come about.”
Read KHN’s full story on the voucher program below:
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.