Donating a kidney
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Most of us have two kidneys, and some of us give up one of them - a noble act, because it can save the life of someone, often a family member, whose kidneys are diseased. But what happens then to the person who donates?
At Johns Hopkins University, Dorry Segev looked at data on more than 80,000 live kidney donors from April 1994 through March 2009.
"On average, you have a very good chance of a successful operation and on average down the road you don't have any higher risk of dying with one kidney versus with two." (11 seconds)
That's important because there are thousands of people in need of a donated kidney.
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.