UCSF Patients Part of Nation's Longest Living Kidney Transplant Chain

"Neither man had a donor who was a match. But each had a family member willing to donate a kidney to a stranger, allowing them all to be part of chain which would, in turn, give Baty and Cienfuegos kidneys from other strangers. With 17 participating hospitals in 11 states, the chain consisted of 30 people willing to give up their kidney, matched with 30 more who needed one to survive. UCSF surgeons Andrew Posselt, M.D., Ph.D. and Ryutaro Hirose, M.D., performed the transplants on Baty and Cienfuegos - just two of the 300 or so kidney transplants performed at UCSF every year."