Relying on a cadaveric donation — a viable organ from a brain-dead person — can take years. That’s why SSM is aiming to increase awareness about living donor donations. St. Louis University Hospital runs one of the region’s two transplant centers for adults. Barnes-Jewish Hospital has the other.

“Every year we have more patients listed than we did the last year,” Tenge said of the transplant waiting list. “The number of transplants are not growing with that number.”

There are added benefits to finding a living donor, Randall, the transplant surgeon, said.

First, the donor kidney is out of the body for a short amount of time before it’s placed in the recipient. Reducing that out-of-body time improves the longevity of the organ, Randall said. There’s a national benefit, too, he said.

“There’s a limited supply of cadaver kidneys and you have a large number of people vying for those organs, so every time you have an opportunity to receive a living donor it opens up the pool for other people,” he said.