So she found another way to do it. In return, her son's name was moved to the top of the waiting list. He got his kidney from a cadaver a few weeks later. It was Rohrer, along with officials of the New England Organ Bank and other area transplant centers, who devised the unique idea, which was approved recently by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the national organization in charge of organ allocations. Last year, more than 6,000 Americans died waiting for in-demand organs from cadavers.
Some patients get around the long wait for a kidney when a family member agrees to donate one.
But donors must be compatible by blood and tissue type. Corey had been on dialysis for six months after suffering kidney failure. The result was that the stranger, Evangelos Natsinas of Greece, got Stephens' kidney in an operation Feb. 27. The procedure was able to be scheduled in advance, so Natsinas didn't have to be awakened in the middle of the night and hop the first plane to Boston. The operation went well, and Natsinas went home to Greece a few days later.