A Hallway of Applause for a Living Kidney Donor: What It Means for Transplant

Some of the best moments in transplant happen in a hallway. In late September in Louisville, one of them happened for a living kidney donor, and the people clapping were doctors, nurses, staff and families.

The story

WDRB+WAVE reports that Shelley Bridges, of Tacoma, Washington, donated a kidney to Kenny Bradley, WDRB's retired chief news photographer. Bridges traveled from Tacoma for the transplant, which took place Monday, September 28.

On Wednesday, as Bridges was discharged, doctors, nurses, staff and families lined a hallway at UofL Health's Trager Transplant Center to applaud her. The station described it as a "special sendoff." She left the hospital to keep recovering before traveling back to Washington.

Bradley is, in the station's words, "no stranger to organ transplants." He received a double lung transplant 10 years ago. As the WDRB+WAVE video puts it, "He knows the procedure and what's ahead." Bradley said he could be discharged as early as Thursday and plans to recover at his farm in Trimble County.

That's what the reporting tells us, and I'll leave it there. The coverage doesn't say how Bridges and Bradley know each other or how they were matched, so I won't guess.

Why a hallway full of applause matters

A living donor is a healthy person who chooses to have surgery for someone else's sake. Bridges didn't just give a kidney. She also gave her time, traveled across the country, and took on a recovery of her own. Lining a hallway is a small thing, but it tells a donor that the whole team sees what she gave.

The need is real. As of the page's last review in August 2026, organdonor.gov lists 109,817 men, women and children on the national transplant waiting list, and says kidneys are the organ most commonly needed. Its living donation page puts it plainly: 85% of people on the waiting list need a kidney.

Living donors are a big part of the answer. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, citing data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 6,521 kidney transplants in 2025 came from living donors, and 7,237 people became living organ donors that year. The same report says more than 90,000 Americans are still waiting for a kidney transplant.

What living donation involves

For anyone reading this and wondering about it, here are a few plain facts from organdonor.gov:

  • There's a real evaluation. Donors must be at least 18 (some hospitals require 21) and in good physical and mental health. Expect a physical exam, lab tests, cancer screenings, a mental health evaluation, and questions about your support and finances.
  • Recovery takes time. Living kidney donors typically stay two to three days in the hospital, and recovery takes about six to twelve weeks.
  • It's typically safe, but not risk-free. Most living donors go on to live active, healthy lives. Short-term risks include pain or infection, and long-term effects can include high blood pressure for kidney donors. Transplant centers follow up with donors after surgery.

What this means for those of us in organ procurement

The donation that organ procurement coordinators manage is deceased donation. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services describes organ procurement organizations as the groups that identify potential organ donors, request consent from donor families, recover organs, and make sure organs get to transplant hospitals.

Living donation runs on a different track. Organdonor.gov explains that someone who wants to give to a person they know should contact the transplant program where that person is listed, and someone who wants to give to a stranger can contact a transplant hospital. The surgery happens at a transplant hospital. And unlike deceased donors, a living donor can decide who receives the organ.

So a story like this one may never cross our desks. It still matters to us. Every kidney from a living donor is one more person off a waiting list that deceased donation alone can't clear. When families ask us about donation, or friends ask how they can help someone waiting, it helps to know both paths and to point people to the right door: their local organ procurement organization for deceased donation, and a transplant hospital for living donation.

Mostly, I'm grateful. As a news photographer, Bradley helped tell other people's stories. This time, his station told his, and a donor from Tacoma got the applause she earned.

Sources

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