Couples take part in kidney exchange

TWO American couples have taken part in a double kidney swap, with the husbands donating organs to each other's wives.

Jody Pardoe, 43, received a kidney from a stranger while in the next operating theatre her husband Peter donated one of his kidneys to that man's wife.

The couples, who underwent the procedures yesterday at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire, do not know each other's identities.

For Mrs Pardoe it was her second transplant since 1991. She is hoping it means she will be able to live without regular dialysis.

Her husband had been willing to donate a kidney to her, but her rare type B blood - possessed by only 3 per cent of the population - meant his blood did not match.

The hospital then found a couple in the same situation, and brought them together for the procedure when it was discovered their blood and tissue types were compatible.

Before the operation Mrs Pardoe said: "I feel guilty about Peter giving up his kidney. I can't say enough about what Peter is doing.

"It's not as if he's giving it to me. He's giving it to a stranger so that I can have a better life."

Mr Pardoe, 43, said: "I had no second thoughts or qualms about it. I was just doing it for Jody. Anything I could do to make her life a little more normal."

The whole procedure was scheduled to take surgeons up to six hours. There have been about 100 paired kidney exchanges in the Unied States.

"It takes a lot of work, a lot of effort and a lot of faith," Dr David Axelrod, who performed one of the transplants, told a local newspaper. "People have to have faith that the quality of the kidney one is getting is as good as the one they are giving."