Brooke Binkowski
August 04, 2008
 Listen

A living kidney donor in New York has changed several lives in California. KPCC's Brooke Binkowski has details on one of the West Coast's first "transplant chains."

---

Inocenta Platt: I have to sit, my legs are killing me.

Brooke Binkowski: This is Inocenta Platt. She received a new kidney at UCLA Medical Center almost two weeks ago.

Inocenta Platt: I have lupus since 1996, diagnosed with that, and that's what the problem is attacking my kidney. It was dormant, but suddenly, just one visit to the doctor for regular visit, and the lab shows that my kidney was failing.

Binkowski: This is her son, Randy Platt.

Randy Platt: So what the program is, is where that person donates to my mother, and I donate to somebody else.

Binkowski: He's 30 and healthy, and he wanted to help.

Randy Platt: I want to donate to my mother, but we weren't a perfect match. So there's another person who wants to donate to their other person, their loved one, but they weren't a good match.

Binkowski: So Inocenta got a kidney from Arturo Carvajal, who wasn't compatible with his wife Maricela. Maricela got a kidney intended for Pamela Heckathorn. Pamela got a kidney from an anonymous donor from New York via the Organ Donor Network. Now Randy Platt, who was going to donate to his mom, doesn't need to give up a kidney at all – but he's still going to.

Randy Platt: I'm going to donate my kidney to another recipient on the 18th. We're in this program that – this kidney loop, where there's different people donating to other people so everybody gets a kidney.

Binkowski: UCLA Medical Center coordinated this live donor loop with two hospitals in New York. The university calls it an innovative approach to meeting the needs of nearly 79,000 people in the United States who are waiting for kidney transplants.