Facebook Is Excellent Way To Find Kidney Donor, Study Finds

If you are in desperate need of a Kidney and you’re so far down the national donor list that your chances of receive help are low you might want to turn your efforts towards Facebook. A recent study has found that in terms of sheer reach Facebook pages setup to find Kidney’s are one of the most effective ways to match donors with recipients.

To test the efficacy of the pages researchers studied nearly 100 Facebook pages that had been setup for that purpose, they found that one-third of those pages had potential donors step forward to see if they were compatible for a transplant. Out of those tests one in eight people actually managed to snag a donor.

In one example of Facebook’s organ transplant inspiring reach a page put together for a young child had 600 potential donors step forward for testing.

The study also found that it wasn’t always the patient setting up their own pages, in 37% of cases a patient created their own page while 31% of the time it was their children. Pages were also setup by friends and other family members 32% of the time.

While the pages have helped dozens of people in need the study also found that they rarely if ever talk about the drawbacks to helping. Only 5% of pages mentioned medical risks and only 11% explained to donors that there are costs associated with providing your organ to someone in need.

Would you put up a Facebook page to find a donor if you were in need or does that idea seem a little too public for you?