Last time out, we encouraged you to get your annual checkup.
Lawyer’s orders.
Remember?
One of the partners at our firm, Erik Harvey and associate, Elizabeth Lawson, who both know a fair amount about business law, decided on a project over the past year that was a departure of sorts and which involved experiential learning within the healthcare industry.
Harvey learned from a routine annual physical that he had kidney failure and would need years of dialysis. Lawson learned that she was a perfect match as a transplant donor, for him, so this past summer, Lawson gave Harvey a kidney. And that’s when both urged everyone to get an annual physical.
This time out, both are teaming up with Donate Life NC to encourage you to be an organ donor.
The need
The good news is that 1 million new donors were added to the rolls in 2025, but more help is needed, because just a little over half – 54.8 percent – of North Carolina residents are organ donors.
Donate Life NC says that 1,520 people received transplants from 697 donors. Still, 3,962 people, including 73 children, are waiting for a donor; and like Erik Harvey, roughly 90 percent, or 3,691, need a kidney.
If you would like to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor for the time after you die, you can do so when you renew your driver’s license or by visiting this website https://www.donatelifenc.org/register.
But increasingly, especially for almost 4,000 North Carolinians, there is a need for organ donation while you are still alive.
What is living donation?
Donate Life NC says that living organ donation is the act of voluntarily giving an organ to another while the donor is still living. In living donation, the goal is to have the least negative impact on the person donating, while also healing another life. Potential donors receive extensive health and emotional screening at no cost to them.
While many organs can be donated through living donation, the most common are kidney and partial liver. Other, less common, organ donations include a lung lobe and intestine section.
Who can donate?
Most healthy individuals can be living donors. While it is rare for anyone under 21 or older than 70 to be living donors, there are no age limits on living donation. As always, the health and well-being of the potential donor is considered carefully by a transplant team, so overall mental and physical health and anticipated health outcomes are more important than age. Each case is considered on its own merits.
How much does it cost?
Being a living donor costs the donor nothing in medical expenses, however, all prospective donors must complete their annual or age-appropriate health screenings and preventive medical visits, which are covered by the donor and/or the donor’s health insurance. All other medical expenses for screenings, surgery, recovery and follow up visits are covered by the recipient and their health insurance.
Expenses not covered by the recipient can include travel to the transplant center for screenings, and follow up visits, hotel rooms and meals for family members during the screening or hospitalization, or lost wages during recovery. There is some income-based federal assistance to cover these costs. Some transplant programs like the National Kidney Registry will pay all costs for the donor.
Where in North Carolina can I be a living donor or receive a transplant?
North Carolina is fortunate to have five transplant centers located across the state. Each of these centers has a living donor program with coordinators who can help you begin the process. Living donors can donate at any hospital, but often find it easier to donate at a hospital closest to them. If you want to donate to a specific individual, find out at which hospital they are listed so you can more efficiently help them. Click on the name of the hospital below for more information.
Atrium Transplant Center (Charlotte)
Duke Transplant Center (Durham)
National Kidney Registry (National Program)
UNC Transplant Center (Chapel Hill)
Vidant ECU Transplant Center (Greenville)
Wake Forest Baptist Transplant Center (Winston Salem)
How Can I Get More Information?
Living donation is a complex topic. Please click on the link below that best captures what information you are seeking to get more specific details.
I want to learn more about the Donate Life America Living Donor Pathway
I would like more information on living donation.
I would like to read some FAQ’s about living donation.
The information above is a resource for those waiting for a transplant, those interested in being a living donor and for those who just want more information. Please let us know if you have questions not addressed here by emailing your question to [email protected]. Or if you would like to hear it straight from the horse’s – er, lawyer’s – mouth, contact us. Elizabeth Lawson can tell you what it’s like to donate a kidney and Erik Harvey can tell you what it’s like to receive one. Both will tell you that it’s worthwhile.
