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Kidney Donors and Recipients Meet for First Time After Maine Operations

PORTLAND, Maine - In what's described as the largest, first-of-its-kind kidney pair donation chain in Maine, three recipients received kidneys Nov from three donors, in operations Nov. 4 at Maine Medical Center.

Today the three donors and three recipients met for the first time. Dr. John Vella, director of Maine Med's transplant program, says about a third of the kidneys that could potentially be donated to a relative, friend or loved one are biologically incompatible. That's when indirect donations can come into play.

"So maybe an incompatible donor could give a kidney to somebody else's intended recipient and their donor could give to our recipient," Vella says. "So this is known as 'kidney pair' donations."

The donation chain being celebrated today at Maine Medical Center was kicked off when a so-called altruistic donor, an individual with no ties to a potential recipient, made his kidney available.

Patty Wight contributed reporting to this story.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.