New Organs, New Life

Define transplant surgery. Transplant surgery is a highly specialized medical procedure in which a failing or damaged organ is replaced with a healthy organ from another person, known as the donor. The primary goal of any organ transplant is to restore essential bodily functions that your native organ can no longer perform, thereby extending your life and drastically improving your overall quality of life.

Define Sanford Health and what makes us unique. At Sanford Health, we believe that understanding your medical options is the first step toward reclaiming your health and your independence. Our approach to care is straightforward, welcoming, and deeply rooted in the communities we serve. We understand that medical procedures of this magnitude can feel overwhelming. That is why our dedicated transplant team is here to guide you through every single step of the transplant journey. Talk about how Sanford is a part of the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) model.

You can compare transplant centers online by the organ transplant you're seeking. Search the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), a national database of statistics related to organ transplantation. The registry covers organ donation, waiting list candidates, transplant recipients and survival stats. View our locations that do Kidney transplants Sanford Health/USD Medical Center and Sanford Medical Center Fargo.

At Sanford Health, we provide the following transplant surgeries:

Adult kidney transplant
Paired exchange transplant
Deceased donor transplants
Related and unrelated living donor transplant

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Types of Donors

Living Donor

Talk about what a living donor is. Kidney's are one of the most common living-donor transplants because the human body only needs one healthy kidney to filter waste and function perfectly, so a healthy person can safely donate one of their two kidneys to someone in need. A living donor can be a blood relative, such as a sibling or a child, or a non-relative, such as a spouse, a friend, or even an anonymous altruistic donor. How do you pick someone? Do they need to have the same blood type?

Advantages of living donor

Completely eliminates the need to wait on the national transplant list, meaning the surgery can be scheduled at a time that is convenient for both the donor and the recipient.
Kidneys from living donors generally begin functioning immediately after surgery, whereas deceased donor kidneys may take a few days or weeks to start filtering waste.
Living donor kidneys tend to last longer on average than deceased donor kidneys, providing the recipient with a longer, healthier life.

More information for the living donor

All potential living donors must make the first contact with the transplant program and undergo an evaluation. (What does this mean in terms of Sanford? Reach out to Sanford?) The rate of recovery is different for each person, but you should expect a lifting restriction of no more than 10 pounds for the first six weeks, with gradual increase after that.

After donation, you continue to have normal kidney function. No lifestyle changes or medications are necessary

Sanford Paired Exchange Transplant
If you have a willing living donor who is not a direct match for you, Sanford Health can help you explore paired kidney exchange programs. In these programs, incompatible donor-recipient pairs are matched with other pairs in the same situation, allowing two or more recipients to receive compatible kidneys through a strategic swap.

What should our CTA be/link to?

Deceased Donor

What is a deceased donor transplant? A deceased donor transplant occurs when an individual who has recently passed away has elected to be an organ donor. If their family consents and the organs are deemed healthy, the organs are recovered and transported to the transplant center where the matched recipient is waiting. Because you must wait for a compatible organ to become available through the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) system, the timeline for a deceased donor transplant is unpredictable.

How to get on the wait list
Talk about how you get on the wait list. What is Sanford's process? Is there a website to start the process that we can link to?

What happens when you're on the wait list?
Once you are placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) wait list, organs are assigned to local patients first, followed by a multi-state region and then nationally. Waiting for an organ can take months, even years. During that time, you'll need to return to a Sanford Transplant Center annually to update your information.

How can people sign up to be organ donors?