How safe is live kidney donation for your donor?
Most people have two kidneys but can lead a normal life with just one.
This means it is safe for a healthy person to donate one of their kidneys.
Donors will only be accepted after they have had thorough medical tests including:
- blood tests
- urine tests
- chest X-rays
- an ECG (electrocardiogram)
- a CT (computed tomography) angiogram.
These tests are to make sure that a donor is healthy enough to safely donate one of their kidneys.
About 3 in 1000 donors go on to develop end-stage kidney disease.
This is similar to the risk of developing end-stage kidney disease in the general population.