Become Mike's Donor

Through the National Kidney Registry, registration has commenced for live donors to help give The Gift of Life to Michael Handfield. 

 

Mike has been accepted into the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center in Phoenix, the largest integrated transplant provider in the United States and a leader in living-donor kidney transplants. 

 

The donation process is detailed yet straight forward:

• You must be at least 18 years old and in good physical and mental health.

• After an initial confidential screening (allowing you to privately opt-out at any time), you'll have a blood test to check for blood type compatibility.  Mike's blood type is O+ which makes him compatible with potential donors having either blood types O+ or O-.

• If you have blood type O+ or O-, you can donate directly to Mike as a Directed Donor.   

• If you don't have a compatible blood type or don't know your blood type, you can be a Non-Directed Donor which usually entitles you to a "voucher" for either family members or one non-family member should THEY need a transplant in the future.  My hope is that you would give this voucher to Mike to move him to the top of kidney donation list. 

• Or, you could be part of the Paired Exchange program whereby one incompatible donor-recipient pair (usually spouses or relatives) swaps kidneys with another incompatible pair to create a compatible match for both recipients.  While this program is innovative, it's also complex and could take more time --- than we have.    

• Plus, early on, you'll be offered the assistance of a Donor Advocate to represent your own health, insurance and all other personal interests, every single step of the way --- independent of Mike and me.    

• From there, full medical exams and more tests are conducted until everyone feels that this is the right action to take.

 

Donating a kidney is safe --- and heroic.  Please be our hero and consider a kidney donation to Mike today.