Kidney transplant recipient Oscar Jimenez is about to enjoy his first Christmas with a new kidney thanks to a generous co-worker, Lisa Delgado, and to the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program at Texas Transplant Institute^**,

Dr. Francis Wright, Jr., Director of the Abdominal Organ Transplant Program and a kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon with Texas Transplant Physician Group performed Mr. Jimenez's surgery. "Oscar's kidney transplant is another example of how our team will bend over backwards to turn no into yes for patients in need of a kidney transplant. All potential donors--whether family members, friends, church congregants, or, in this case--near strangers--are rigorously screened and evaluated and we can help them make informed decisions about kidney donation and give the gift of life," says Dr. Wright.

To watch Oscar and Lisa's heart-warming story, click here.

The Non-Directed Kidney Donor Program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital^* continues to break records--and save lives--with 23 kidney transplants resulting from a single donor. The largest single center chain in the world began in November, 2010 with 16 kidney transplants over three days. Another seven kidney transplants were recently completely with remarkable success.

The kidney recipients ranged in age from 17 to 69 and all were transplanted with fully matched kidneys without the need for any desensitization therapy.

Adam Bingaman, MD, PhD, is Director of the Live Donor Kidney Transplant  Program and a Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgeon with Texas Transplant Physician Group in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Bingaman and his team are planning to extend the chain further in January, 2011. Stay tuned for more news on these record-breaking achievements.

Texas Transplant Physician Group's kidney transplant surgeon and Director, Live Kidney Donor Transplant Program, Dr. Adam Bingaman, is quoted in the Tennessean.com 's article about the UNOS' pilot program to help find matches for incompatible kidney donor/recipient pairs. Click here to read the full article.

Samuel Smith from Charlotte, Vermont, is one of 16 kidney transplant patients to participate in Texas Transplant Institute^**'s history-making donor exchange. To learn more, click here.

To follow Samuel's extraordinary story, please be sure to check out his family's blog: Smith Kidney Blogspot

See more about the 17 kidney donors and 16 kidney recipients who helped make history this week in Jennifer Dodd's report from Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital^*: click here.

To watch Wendy Rigby's report on Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital^*'s 16-way kidney paired exchange donor transplants, click here. The story is getting tremendous attention--even CNN picked up the story and it was broadcast on Saturday, November 13! Click here to see the link.

Read the front-page article in the San Antonio Express-News about how a non-directed donor triggered a chain of 16 kidney transplants in a three-day medical marathon: Giving, Giving, Giving the Gift of Life

Read the San Antonio Express-News coverage of Dr. Adam Bingaman's Letter to the Editor in the September 9, 2100 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine: Paired Donations Touted for Kidney Transplant.

Read Dr. Adam Bingaman's Letter to the Editor in the September 9, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating how Kidney Paired Donation Programs like the one at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital^* in San Antonio, Texas--home of the largest living donor kidney transplant program in the United States in 2009--could mean significantly more access to live donor kidney transplants if the program could be replicated across the country.

The kidney transplant program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital^*(MSTH) in San Antonio, Texas, home of the nation’s largest live donor kidney transplant program in 2009¹, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine that they have increased access to live donor kidney transplantation by 34% with kidney paired donation (KPD). The paired donor program identifies living donors who wish to donate their kidney but cannot because of blood or tissue incompatibility with the recipient.  Incompatible pairs are matched with other incompatible pairs, and the donors are exchanged, resulting in compatible transplant combinations.