USA: The University of Virginia Health Transplant Center is launching a bold Living Donor First initiative aimed squarely at boosting living donor kidney and liver transplants and shortening the brutal wait many patients endure. The campaign is designed to send an early and frequent message about living donation to patients and potential donors, with a particular emphasis on pediatric candidates and families. Transplant becomes the central focus as the center mobilizes staff and outreach to connect people who need organs with those who can give them.
Anita Sites, nurse practitioner and manager of the living donor and pediatric programs at UVA Health, frames the effort as a practical path to saving more lives. The program will educate families about the process of living donation and give patients a clearer possibility of receiving a transplant before they become critically ill. The initiative aims to demystify how to start conversations about donating a kidney or part of a liver and to make those conversations repeatable until someone steps forward.
Shawn Pelletier MD, service line director and division chief of transplant surgery at UVA, highlights the medical payoff of living donor transplantation. Living donor organs typically mean healthier organs, fewer complications, and longer organ function. Pelletier notes that patients can wait eight to ten years for a deceased donor organ and that living donation can cut that time sharply while allowing clinicians to treat patients earlier and improve outcomes.
The program promises both intense clinical benefit and deep human moments. Surgical teams celebrate when living donor procedures succeed because friends and family come together in relief and gratitude. UVA positions the Living Donor First campaign as a strategic, compassionate push to expand living kidney and liver transplants, to shorten waiting lists, and to change lives through thoughtful conversations and coordinated care.
