IAmA physician and kidney donor. AMA

I am a physician who donated a kidney anonymously.

Given the recent IAmA interest in organ donation I thought I'd provide another perspective. Given Reddit's fondness for interesting altruistic projects I imagine a few people might be interested in pursuing live donation.

In September 2008 while I was in my second year of internal medicine residency I emailed the coordinators at a nearby east coast hospital and asked about the process of becoming a live donor. In February 2009 I donated my left kidney as part of a four donor swap. I've never met the donor, though I know some very basic details about the situations of the donors and recipients.

I actually donated during my vacation in between two ICU rotations. I'm currently a pulmonary critical care fellow and spend a big chunk of my time taking care of organ transplant recipients (lung, heart, liver, kidney). I've got a pretty good sense of what both sides of the process look like.

I'd be excited to answer any questions anybody has about live donation, either from the perspective of professional or patient.

Proof stuff:

My state licenses: Indiana California

Kidney's tougher since I'm no longer in possession of it. Here's a laparascopic scar with some notation