At the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE, stories like Zhiyu Jiang’s (above) aren’t uncommon. For patients facing long transplant waiting lists in their home state, a trip to Nebraska could be life-changing.
“In California, I think the average wait time [for a kidney transplant] is like five years,” says Jiang.
Nebraska’s shorter kidney transplant wait times allow many out-of-state patients to receive critical kidney transplants when they need them most. Just eight months after his evaluation with the Nebraska Medicine transplant team, Zhiyu got the call that a kidney was available.
Kidney recipient Janet Giannini had a similar experience.
"We were at a wedding when we got the call,” says Giannini, who received a transplant four months after being added to the Nebraska Medicine waiting list, following more than four years on a list in California. “The bride had just come down the aisle, and your area code came up. I thought the transplant coordinator must have a question or something."
Both recipients recommend that patients in need of a kidney consider coming to Nebraska Medicine for its shorter wait times and the expertise of the transplant team at the Lied Transplant Center. That’s not surprising, considering most areas of the country measure their wait times in years, not months.
Visit the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients for a waitlist overview and see how Nebraska Medicine compares to the rest of the United States. Nebraska Medicine performs more than 175 kidney transplants each year while maintaining a better-than-average patient mortality rate.
Extraordinary kidney transplant care
While wait times made him consider flying here for a kidney transplant, it’s the care Jiang received that sealed the decision for Nebraska Medicine over other programs with similarly short wait times.
“Nebraska really stands out,” says Jiang. “The whole team, like the nurses, doctors, and physical therapists that helped me walk the first couple of days, they’re all really nice and very responsive. They make you feel comfortable and well taken care of. I’m so grateful I came here.”
Giannini echoes Jiang’s sentiments.
"Everybody who came in the door knew exactly what they were doing," she says.
She still orders all her medications from Nebraska Medicine and returns each year for her follow-up care because the transplant team and pharmacists here have impressed her so much.
Another way to shorten your time on the wait list
Nebraska Medicine also offers a robust Living Donor program, which can help patients receive a transplant faster. The transplant team has successfully coordinated large groups of living donors. In these paired exchanges, donors give a kidney to someone else, helping their loved one receive a compatible kidney in return.