Transforming Lives, One Transplant at a Time
The Trinity Health Kidney Transplant Clinic in Traverse City is bringing much-needed kidney transplant care to residents in Northern Michigan. While transplant surgery will remain in Grand Rapids, patients can be evaluated at this bi-monthly clinic closer to home. We pride ourselves on being West Michigan’s most experienced kidney transplant program. We continually offer ongoing advancements in surgical techniques and innovative donor options to offer more hope to our patients.
Types of Kidney Transplant
Living Donor
Most people are born with two kidneys. One is enough to live normally. Living kidney donation is when a healthy person agrees to have surgery to remove one kidney. That kidney will be placed inside a person with kidney disease.
Types of living kidney donation:
- Living Kidney Direct Donation: These kidney donors know their recipient and have stated they want to donate directly to them. The donor and recipient must have compatible blood types for this type of donation.
- Living Kidney Paired Exchange: This is an exciting program where living kidney donors can donate their kidney to a recipient they do not know in exchange for a compatible or better matched kidney for their original recipient. This allows the opportunity for incompatible pairs to still receive a living kidney transplant.
- Living Kidney Anonymous Donation: Sometimes a person contacts the transplant center and wishes to donate a kidney, but does not know anyone in need of a kidney, so they donate anonymously.
Deceased Donor
A deceased donor is a donor who has recently died. The average national wait time for a deceased donor kidney is 3 to 5 years.
For more information about the transplant process and our program, download our free guide below.