TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) – A multimillion dollar investment in human life is on its way to the Glass City. The University of Toledo received a grant that aims to help boost the pool of kidney donors.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network says there are currently more than 2,600 people in Ohio waiting on the gift of a kidney transplant.
The $2 million grants can help shrink that number and save lives.
"This is why funding is so important. Crazy people like me, anonymous donors, are why the program works. This is why people, strange people, that live in different states get the opportunity to live," said Jennifer Gordon.
Gordon has a big heart and one less kidney because of it.
"I am an anonymous donor, and I'm proud to say my kidney lives very happily in a 63-year-old gentleman in Indiana," said Gordon.
People like Gordon who volunteer a piece of themselves to give others a second chance have to go through tests to make sure they are good matches for the person in need. If a test falls through, insurance companies will cut funding to continue the tests, ruling out the donor and sometimes making it so a transplant cannot take place.
The new grant will change that over the next four years. It will pay for tests to continue so a match can be found. That means more people like Gordon can give the gift of life.
"It's an extraordinary feeling. It has come a long way. I am over 50, and I've been around this probably since I was in my early teens, and it was a horror story that many people in Toledo are familiar with," said Gordon.
That is why she did the surgery two years ago.
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