The living kidney donor perspective in a transplant programme in Trinidad and Tobago: Seeing donation through the donor's eyes

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the views from actual donors in our local programme which may have a psychological impact on kidney donation. Methods: Living kidney donors between June 2006 and March 2011 were given an un-standardized questionnaire. Of the 72 donors, 43 responded and information about their demographics, their motivation to donate and their transplant experiences were collated. Results: Forty-nine per cent of the donors were in the 40-60 age group and 54% had attained secondary school education. In just over 50% of the cases, the motivation for transplant was for health reasons and love of family. All the responding donors were satisfied that the National Organ Transplant Unit (NOTU) gave them adequate information throughout the evaluation process and would recommend to a friend the act of donation. However, 9% of these donors, would not give an undirected donation at death. Thirty-three of the transplant patients, had an excellent transplant experiences. An unsatisfactory experience was registered for two patients when the recipient died post-transplant and when the time needed to return to work was prolonged. Once the recipient either returned to dialysis or died, the donor registered transplantation as not being an excellent experience completely oblivious to the period when the kidney was functional. Conclusion: The NOTU as a specialized unit for conveying education and information, met the approval of all the living donors. A major reason for a negative experience was poor graft outcome namely recipient death or return to dialysis. In such high-risk groups, arrangements for appropriate counselling must be established to ensure good donor psychomorbidity post-transplant.