I’m holding two almonds these almonds
are about the size of the amygdala in
your brain the amygdala is an organ with
a variety of functions including
emotional response and empathy if your
amygdala is shriveled and underdeveloped
you may be a sociopath if your amygdala
is big well you may be different it’s
June 2015 my wife Louise and I are
driving in our car I’m 65 mostly retired
and a bit of a crossroads as to what to
do with myself as we’re driving we’re
listening to a podcast in this case the
podcast is for economics one of my
favorites the subject of the podcast is
Professor Alvin Roth and his work in
enabling multiple kidney patients to
receive kidney transplants from living
donors in a cascading chain as I’m
listening to the podcast I am struck by
the concept of leverage that one
altruistic or non-directed donor can
impact multiple patients through the
donation of one wholly redundant kidney
I know in that moment that I’m gonna
give my kidney to a stranger it’s as if
I was struck by lightning but the more I
think about it I realize I have a
problem my wife you see my wife doesn’t
do hospitals she comes from Swedish
Finnish stock and they simply never
think about their health they are some
of the toughest people around in fact
whenever I’m sick I fear I’m going to be
given half
get and sent into the woods but I turned
to her and I say Louise this is
something I really want to do I don’t
know what to expect in response after a
few moments she turns to me and says yes
I know that we’ve been married for 33
years I know you’re pretty well by now
go ahead yes I get to give away my
kidney
so I contact the National Kidney
registry I get registered at New York
Presbyterian I start the process to be
tested and I learn a few things
kidney donation is major surgery there’s
no getting around that but the odds of a
mate of a serious complication arising
during surgery is one in 3,000 you have
two kidneys combined that have four
times the capacity that you need to be
healthy when you donate a kidney your
remaining kidney grows larger and you
retain twice the capacity you need
there’s one other fact that curiously
studies have shown that there’s a
measurable improvement in the quality of
life of the donor I’ll get back to that
it seems that my instant inclination to
donate my kidney is symptomatic of a
certain type of individual you might
find this hard to believe but as a group
we are not quite normal
professor Abigail Marsh of Georgetown
has done extensive research on non
directed donors in her research she has
shown that as a group non directed
donors have a significantly enlarged
amygdala I’ve Sid spoken with a number
of non directed donors and I can tell
you that the epiphany that I felt was
shared by virtually every one of them
almost to a person that sense of I have
to do
I want to do this I must do this it’s a
common theme but it’s not all together
good we’re the last group you want to
have with you at the apocalypse we you
breed be the first to be eaten and we
so I completed the testing and was
accepted as a donor because I am Type O
positive I can donate to anyone
finally I’m a hot ticket now all I have
to do is tell my kids we have three
grown children and because they’re our
children I knew this would be the easy
part I sent out an email explaining the
plan
the youngest came back first
he said go for it dad good on you
the oldest was considerably less
enthusiastic he didn’t say he wouldn’t
support me in this but he had a laundry
list of questions and concerns we worked
our way through them it was fine our
middle child
our daughter daddy’s favorite girl
our empathetic blonde who volunteers her
time with the less fortunate of every
stripe told me in no uncertain terms
it appears that her amygdala is not as
big as I thought so we did the slow
climb up the mountain I addressed your
every concern until finally she said
well you’re going to do this anyway but
I am NOT happy about it so I went to the
hospital to meet with the coordinator to
talk about the dates for the I’d be
available for the operation I said I
have a window of September 23rd to
middle of November the donor looked at
me and she said Ned you’re all positive
when I hit this button
you’re gonna let up computer screens
across the country indeed the surgery
took place on September 23rd and all
went well my donation resulted in a
chain of three transplants my kidney
went to my recipient in Denver her
father’s kidney went to Hartford where
the last two transplants took place as a
non directed donor you don’t know who’s
going to be receiving your kidney until
after the operation and then only if
both parties agree in February some five
months later I was contacted by
freakanomics who asked me to come in and
talk about what I had done with them on
their podcast for those of you who were
old enough to remember the TV show I had
quite a this is your life moment when
halfway through the interview host
Stephen Dubner announced that they were
able to get Danielle my recipient on the
line with us and that I would be
speaking with her for the first time
live during the interview that was a
moment I will never forget I thought
that when I donated my kidney that would
be the end of it I was not prepared for
the transformative power of the
experience I felt afterwards as if
something inside me had fundamentally
changed there’s a an author and a living
donor
herself who writes about donors and this
is what she says living donors are
happier I’ve met a lot of donors in the
last five years and if I had to choose
one word to describe them beyond
compassionate it would be happy there’s
a euphoria that accompanies the active
living donation which is difficult to
explain without sounding a little crazy
that description rings true to me and I
see in other donors I’ve met as well so
what to do with this newfound sense of
well-being I knew I wanted to stay
involved I spoke with a number of health
care professionals and I soon learned
how incredibly difficult it could be for
a patient on dialysis to generate the
resources necessary to mount a campaign
to find a donor most of these patients
have families who know the circumstances
and who choose not to come forward worse
when a patient asks a family member
directly and that person declines you
can imagine what that does to the
patient’s sense of self-worth add to
that the difficulties of dialysis it’s a
procedure required three to four days a
week
three to four hours at a time it’s
physically exhausting and it’s basically
a form of slow death since dialysis that
dialysis cannot rid the organs of toxins
the way that a kidney does right now in
this country they’re a little over
ninety nine thousand people waiting for
a kidney transplant last year there were
18,000 transplants waiting times vary
from hospital and region but a wait time
of five to ten years is not uncommon
many many people die waiting for a
kidney you can see how someone in this
condition could lose all hope now I know
that there are not a lot of us
non-directed donors out there according
to the United Network for Organ Sharing
in 2014
out of an adult population of two
142 million people in this country there
were 183 of us to put that number in
perspective that is 39 fewer that have
but I also know there are a lot of you
potential donors out there you know who
you are
the ones with two kidneys who might just
now be getting the word now that number
183 does not include parens on Facebook
and other social media we all know what
an incredibly powerful tool social media
can be for bringing people together so I
got to thinking wine there’s nobody who
can who can talk to a potential donor as
well as somebody who’s already donated
so why not pair a patient on dialysis
with a person who was given a kidney and
have that person become the patient’s
champion and advocate to help them find
a kidney on social media so last
February I started donor to donor a
foundation designed to do just that we
took on as our first sponsored patient
Brian a 47 year old man from Connecticut
we’d been on dialysis for four years we
started a Facebook campaign for him it
went viral and we were contacted by a
beautiful woman named Moya who
volunteered to give her kidney to Brian
this is a picture of Moya moments before
she gets wheeled in for the operation I
think you’ll agree this is the very
the transplant took place on June 23rd
two complete strangers came together and
Brian’s life was transformed now we do
not live in a fairy tale and we do not
live happily ever after
I’m sorry to tell you that in late
November Brian developed pneumonia and
December he died we lost a dear friend
right now
donor the donor is facilitating the
testing of seven people who’ve come
forward to donate to our sponsored
patients and or create a kidney chain
we’ll continue to do this work until the
folks in genetic research develop new
kidneys from stem cells I’m told by my
friends and that business is going to
take about 10 years so while this talk
has been about how a man in his 60s has
opened a new and unexpected chapter in
his life the specifics here don’t matter
what matters is this one thought that by
giving a piece of yourself to others in
whatever way that may have relevance to
you personally
can allow the rest of you to grow in new
and exciting ways you might otherwise
never experience thank you
[Applause] [Music]