Transplants Increase, but More Are Needed

Living-kidney donations have more than doubled in the last decade.

In 2000, 5,293 Americans donated a kidney, accounting for more than a third of the 13,372 kidney transplants across the United States.

As of November, about 50,000 Americans were on a waiting list for a kidney.

The waiting period for a kidney from a cadaver can run two to five years.

Most transplant centers have a waiting list that is two to five times the number of transplants they do each year.

For information about living donations, call the National Kidney Foundation at (800) 622-9010.

--Hartford Courant

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Sources: United Network for Organ Sharing and National Kidney Foundation