The Campaign to 'End the Wait'

The Mission

Nevada Donor Network together with the Nevada Donor Network Foundation (NDNF) has established a capital campaign called “End the Wait” to raise $35 million to expand transplantation in Nevada. This funding will expand the current kidney transplant program and then create a new liver transplant program within the Nevada Transplant Institute. Nevada residents will no longer have to seek life-saving care in surrounding states. They will be evaluated, transplanted and cared for locally.

Plans for expansion across the state are anticipated. The transplant program will plug into existing hospital systems, infrastructure and equipment that is currently available. Philanthropic funding from the community will primarily go into hiring the required healthcare transplant experts and covering the cost of patient care, including the procedure itself, until achieving CMS certification.

The Need

In Nevada, access to anything other than a kidney or pancreas transplant is not currently available. These critically ill patients must face the financial, physical and emotional burden of traveling to neighboring states to get the care they need or be placed on hospice. With a growing need for organs and a limited supply, most of the country (aside from Nevada) is in a situation where transplant centers must choose whom to transplant, who not to transplant and to take risks on lower-quality organs for transplant because there simply aren’t enough organs.

The University Medical Center of Southern Nevada's (UMC) Center for Transplant is the sole transplant provider in Nevada. The number of Nevadans waiting for a kidney transplant is more than double the amount of people being transplanted in our state. 58% of kidney transplant services are “exported” to surrounding transplant programs in different states. Most Nevadans relocate for months to receive their life-saving gift due to a lack of robust transplantation programs.

TOGETHER, WE CAN

End the Wait.