MatchingDonors.com Newsletter - Organ Donor, Organ Transplant, Organ Donor Services,

Check out last week's U.S. News & World Report interviewing our Medical Direct- Dr. Lowney.

Also, check out NewYorker Magazine's great 14 page story about MatchingDonors.com.

ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about people who donate their kidneys to strangers. Tells about Paul Wagner, a Philadelphian who read a newspaper article about a Web site named MatchingDonors. People who need a kidney transplant can post a message on the site, describing themselves and their situation in the hope that a stranger will see the posting and be moved to donate. Searching for patients in Philadelphia, Wagner found Gail Tomas and almost immediately felt that she was the one. Tells about the reactions of Wagner’s partner, Aaron, and his family to his decision. Like many donors, Wagner had to deal with peculiar emotions after the surgery, but he and Tomas eventually became friends. Giving a kidney to a stranger is more common than you might think. Potential donors sign up on MatchingDonors almost every day. Around six hundred have gone through with the surgery, either through the site or through a hospital. MatchingDonors was thought up five years ago by an entrepreneur from Canton, Massachusetts named Paul Dooley. The first patient to list himself on the site was Bob Hickey. A man named Rob Smitty donated his kidney to Hickey through the site. Describes concerns by doctors regarding the ethics of altruistic kidney donation and tells about studies of the psychology of organ donation. Donation tended to bind the donor and the recipient together, sometimes with love, sometimes with guilt, or gratitude. Even in the case of cadaver donations, emotions shadow the transplant. Tells about Melissa Stephens, a twenty-four-year-old woman who donated a kidney to a rock musician named Kris Randall. Stephens and Randall did not become close after the surgery, but she doesn’t regret her donation. The waiting list for kidney transplants keeps getting longer, and more and more people die waiting. Discusses the algorithm used to determine a person’s place on the cadaver-organ waiting list maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing. Discusses differing views on the morality of voluntary organ sharing and describes various proposals for addressing the shortage of organs. Tells about Kimberly Brown-Whale, a United Methodist pastor in Maryland, who volunteered to donate her kidney. Writer observes the surgery to remove Brown-Whale’s kidney and transplant it to the recipient, a middle-aged man from Rhode Island. Brown-Whale never heard from the man who got her kidney. Of her recovery from the procedure, she says: “I’ve had flus that made me feel worse.”

By popular demand hospitals and any other companies will now be able to advertise on MatchingDonors.com, and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these advertisements will go to patient services from MatchingDonors.com.

MatchingDonors.com is America’s source for patients looking for living altruistic organ donors. Established in 2004 and updated daily, MatchingDonors.com’s website now gets about 1,500,000 hits per month. MatchingDonors has the largest potential living organ donor database in the world; there are over 7,000 registered altruistic donors looking to donate an organ to patients needing organ transplants. We have over 460 patients currently seeking donors and have about 40 more surgeries coming up in the next two months. We have had over 100 surgeries facilitated through MatchingDonors.com, and have over 5,000 registered patients who are in need of organ transplants or who received organ transplants.

On average new patients and potential donors register on MatchingDonors daily. Only in our 4th year of existence our numbers are growing exponentially and the potential for success is unlimited. MatchingDonors is recommended and used by many doctors across the United States, including some of the most prestigious transplant surgeons and transplant centers.

Also, starting this summer/fall MatchingDonors.com will be having a national television, radio, newspaper, magazine and billboard advertising campaign with many celebrity endorsements. The celebrities will be from, movies, television, sports, politics and the music industry. Companies will be able to pay to be noticed as the sponsor these advertisements and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these sponsorships will go to patient services from MatchingDonors.com.

See above a great story that NBC'S TODAY SHOW and Natalie Morales just did about MatchingDonors.com.

Don't forget you can now sign up on MatchingDonors.com as a lifetime member and finance a lifetime membership for only $25 per month, with no payments for 30 days and no interest for a year. This is a limited time offer so please call us today.

We hope everything is going well with you. Things are as busy as always, and going great at MatchingDonors.com.

Thanks,

Paul Dooley

CEO-Founder

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Hero on a Mission

Bob's efforts to help our patients and donors never stop. We are extremely proud of Bob and all he has done. Here's Bob's most recent picture- he looks great! Bob's advocacy has been personally responsible for saving the lives of a number of our patients.

On October 20, 2004 Bob Hickey was the first patient transplanted on MatchingDonors.com. His unselfish efforts in assisting all of our patients and fighting for their rights has made him a Hero to all of us. Any patient can always feel free to contact Bob and ask for his input and experience and even get help on writing a profile. Our most successful patients are those who speak with Bob about his experiences. Bob has created a web site that every patient, donor and anyone interested in organ donation should view. His contact information is also available on his web site View Bob's web site his contact information is:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have an upcoming surgery please call us at 781-821-2204 so we can help you with arrangements, and to also get the news of your surgery out (if you wish).
If you do any press or news don't forget to thank your doctors and hospital by name and the surgical team; they deserve praise.

Tips on using MatchingDonors.com

To get the most out MatchingDonors.com you should:

Send your profile out to every donor in our database by pressing on the EDIT/UPDATE PATIENT PROFILE button on the top of this page, then scroll to the bottom of the next page and press on the SUBMIT/UPDATE button. Do this at least every Monday and Thursday until you find your matched donor. Every time you do this your profile will be sent to every donor's search agent in our database, also it will go towards the top of the patient searchable list.
Every day you will receive a list of donor's profiles from your "Search Agents"; theses are donors that want to be contacted. This is the list of the past three day's new and updated donors. Check your list daily by going to the top of your "Patient Desktop" and pressing on the "Press here to view your daily donor matches at anytime" link . If you want to save this list of donors you can e-mail it to yourself. Check this list every day, and contact all compatible donors. This is the most likely place for patients to find their donors. This list is available at the top of your patient desktop when you sign into your account. This is the best way for patients to find donors since patients can't search for donors any other way. You do not have a searchable list of donors where you can search every donor in the database. When you respond to donors through the search agent your messages to them and their subsequent messages to you will be in your In-Box above.
Contact all donors that you can by telephone, if they only have an e-mail address send them your profile and telephone number, asking them to call you. Some of the donors that you receive by the Search Agent or contact you may not be a compatible blood type. These are still great donors that may be willing to do a paired exchange in order to get your organ donated to you. We have had tremendous success with paired exchanges. If you do not want to do a paired exchange you do not need to contact these donors.
Contact MatchingDonors.com within three days of finding a donor that has had a blood test and matched to you to start the process of us trying to help you and your donor with travel arrangements.
Please do not deal with any donors outside of the United States and Canada. Most hospitals in the United States will not accept them, and we will not support them. Do not give any money to any donor for any reason, all money to donors for any reason needs to be paid through your hospital. If you do not abide by these rules you will be permanently removed from the website.
Remember, like patients, donors can be testing for more than one patient at a time.
Call us as early as possible if you need free airfare for testing or surgery.
Keep us informed monthly of progress. Call or e-mail us so we can see if you need additional help.
Put in a picture of yourself and your family.
Put as many ways to contact you as possible i.e... telephone, e-mail.
Be realistic, you are dealing with live donors. These people have lives. They will answer your e-mails and telephone calls, and schedule their testing and surgery around their work and family.