311 Carol Offen and Betsy Crais: Living Organ Donations: The Insider’s Guide for Donors and Recipients

Carol Offen and Betsy Crais know all too well the exhilaration, separately, of being a living donor and a 2-time organ recipient.

Carol’s adult, college-age son was in need of a kidney. Carol became his donor. 

Betsy Crais’s evaluation for gastric problems in her thirties revealed polycystic kidney disease. When she was in her fifties she became the grateful recipient of a kidney donation from a living donor. Many years later, she required a 2nd kidney and, to everyone’s surprise, a liver. Again a living donor stepped up to donate a kidney but because she needed a liver at the same time, she needed a deceased donor. Not receiving them would have committed her to dialysis indefinitely while also risking death from liver failure.

These two expressive women knew each other since their daughters childhoods. They came together again after their own kidney experiences when they decided to collaborate on authoring a book that would lay bare the plight of recipients and the path of becoming a living donor.

"There is a 6-8 yr. wait for a deceased kidney donor and 90,000 people on the waiting list."

CONNECT WITH CAROL & BETSY:

Carol: carol.kidneydonorhelp@gmail.com; her website: www.kidneydonorhelp.com

Betsy: bcrais@med.unc.edu

Book: The Insider's Guide to Living Kidney Donation: Everything You Need to Know If You Give (or Get) the Greatest Gift