By Catherine Wolf, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital will take part in the largest living-donor kidney transplant to date, on February 14.
The transplant involves six donors and six recipients from hospitals in St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Baltimore. Doctors will remove the kidneys before they're flown to waiting recipients.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital Spokeswoman Kathryn Holleman says patients will be more comfortable because they won't have to make long trips to have surgery.
"The patients don't have to travel as far. It allows them to remain in their community, to have their family around and supporting them, and to be close to home."
Holleman says doctors hope the kidney exchange will become a model for hospitals to share organs between living donors.