Living kidney donation Minimum requirements to donate to Kelsey Crider • Be over the age of 18 • Have a blood type of O Can I live with only one kidney? Yes. The body has two kidneys and is capable of normal function with only one kidney. The remaining kidney will grow larger and function for both kidneys. I want to be a kidney donor; what’s next? Once you’ve made the decision that you want to be a living kidney donor, a series of tests must be performed to determine if you are, in fact, an eligible candidate. First phase of testing includes: • Medical history questionnaire • Blood tests, screening tests and possibly tests for compatibility with the potential recipient • Urine studies, including a 24-hour urine collection • Psychological/sociological examination and screening Second phase of testing includes: • Chest X-ray and EKG • Evaluation and discussion of the donor surgery with a transplant surgeon • Consultation with a social worker for a psych/social screening • Evaluation and consultation with a nurse coordinator • 24-hour urine collection If all of these tests show that you are a suitable donor, one final study to assess your kidney anatomy is required. The donor surgery and kidney transplant may then be scheduled. The living donor surgery at the University of Colorado Hospital is performed by a hand-assisted laparoscopic procedure. It is a minimally invasive procedure. How much will it cost me to donate a kidney? The treatment related to the donor surgery within the first three months will not cost you anything. This includes your pre-operative evaluation, surgery, hospital stay, outpatient visits and medical treatment. These costs are paid by the recipient or the recipient’s insurance company. For more information, go to kidney4kp.com

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Boulder’s Kelsey Crider, who has a genetic kidney disease, thought she had largely moved past her medical problems when a stranger volunteered to become a living kidney donor more than five years ago.

The kidney transplant, her third, was successful, and the 25-year-old transferred about a year-and-a-half ago from Front Range Community College to Metropolitan State University of Denver to work toward a career in medical social work.

But she’s again searching for a donor after a series of urinary tract infections last year scarred her donated kidney, causing it to fail early this year. She’s been on a home dialysis system for nine hours every night for five months.

“Finding someone to be my match would really be life-saving,” said Crider, who’s being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver.

Crider and her family say finding a fourth living donor is difficult because, with each transplant, her body produces more antibodies to defend against the new foreign object.

They need not just someone willing to donate a kidney, but someone with an O blood type whose own antibodies won’t react with hers, making it more likely her body will accept the new kidney.

“We’ve had a couple of donors step up, but her immune system is complex,” said her dad, Steve Crider. “It’s a needle in a haystack. We need to get the word out.”

Her medical journey started two weeks after she graduated from Boulder High School in 2007, when a pre-college physical showed a potential problem. After more tests, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening medullary cystic kidney disease.

Her dad and family friend Dan Powers both provided her with a kidney, but her strong immune system rejected both of them.

She was forced to spend four hours a day, three days a week hooked up to a dialysis machine as she waited for a donor. That’s when Kaye Basedow, a physical therapist living in Westminster, read about her story and agreed to donate her kidney. The transplant took place in 2009.

Basedow at the time said Kelsey Crider reminded her of her three daughters — especially Kelly, who’s Crider’s age and became one of her friends.

Since 2007, Crider has had 10 surgeries and multiple hospital stays.

She said losing the donated kidney was difficult.

“It’s really frustrating to do this all over again and be on the waiting list again,” she said. “I’m a lot sicker now than I was.”

But, she said, she’s doing her best to stay positive by focusing on her goal of becoming a medical social worker to help other transplant patients.

“When I was 17, I didn’t want to be in a hospital ever again,” she said. “But seeing how many people helped me, I decided it would be very rewarding being the advocate for patients. I’m really fortunate to have a good support system. I want to help people who really need it.”

She’s also become an advocate for living donations, pointing to her dad, who’s maintained an active lifestyle, as proof people can thrive with one kidney. There are more than 100,000 people on the national kidney transplant waiting list, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

“There are so many people on a waiting list who are in need of a kidney,” she said. “It’s important to get people informed.”

Dr. James Cooper, a kidney transplant ‎nephrologist at the CU Hospital, said transplanted kidneys have an average lifespan of 10 to 14 years, with kidneys from living donors functioning longer.

Living donor kidneys, if there’s a good match, also typically are available sooner, he said. The average wait time for a kidney from a deceased donor is five years.

“We always encourage living donation whenever it’s a possibility,” he said.

He added that the risk for future health problems after donating a healthy kidney is “very small.”

“On our end, we do very careful screening of all potential kidney donors to really minimize the risk,” he said.

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa