Are you or is someone you know waiting for a kidney?

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), 9,275 kidneys recovered by OPOs in 2024 and offered to transplant patients were declined by transplant programs and ultimately became unviable and went unused. In fact, the nonuse rate of recovered kidneys has surged by 52% since 2016. 34 Lives, after carefully studying this issue and looking at global solutions, has created a service whereby they accept “marginal” or otherwise unused kidneys and rescue them so that they can be transplanted. In 2025, we have rescued over 200 such organs.

No. We do not have a supply of donated kidneys, nor do we “allocate” organs to waiting patients—that is the responsibility of OPOs (Organ Procurement Organizations) and Transplant hospitals. We wait until we get word from an OPO or transplant center that a donor kidney may be a potential rescue kidney for 34 Lives. The organ is then delivered to our Rescue Lab where we do everything we can to rescue it so that it can be transplanted.

34 Lives does not have a waiting list; to get on an organ transplant waiting list, you must work with an organ transplant hospital.

We understand that waiting for a transplant is a grueling journey. Talk to your transplant surgeon. Get on as many waiting lists as possible, not just local ones. Ask your surgeon if they are familiar with the work of 34 Lives and if not, ask them to talk with their OPO about 34 Lives

Organ transplant waiting lists can be handled in a number of ways. Those who are in most desperate need and in the best health may be higher on the list than patients who are doing well on dialysis, are older and/or have multiple health issues. When an organ becomes available, the “next person in line” must match any number of criteria as well as the blood type of the organ donor. If they do not, the transplant hospital goes to the next person on the list and so on.

Kidneys that are rescued by 34 Lives are organs that have been “turned down” by one or more transplant hospitals for a variety of reasons that may include things like number of hours out of body, age and/or health of the donor; availability of a surgeon and/or operating room and others.

The 34 Lives process involves something called Normothermic Machine Perfusion (NMP), a process that basically puts the kidney on life support to warm it up. After performing a number of tests to determine the level of functioning of the organ, the 34 Lives team reaches out to the transplant hospital with new data documenting the performance of the organ.