This Chicago doctor donated her kidney to a woman in Virginia she’d never met

This Chicago doctor donated her kidney to a woman in Virginia she’d never met   More than 90,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney donation, but Dr. Aleksandra Gmurczyk helped take two people off the waitlist when she donated her own kidney to Ginger, a woman she had never met, and launching a kidney-paired donation.   A kidney-paired donation happens when a person is willing to donate a kidney to someone in their life who needs it, but they aren’t a good match, so they swap recipients with another donor.   In this case, Gmurczyk’s kidney was donated in February to Ginger, who had “hard-to-match” kidneys. Ginger’s husband, Gary, was not a match for his wife. He donated his kidney to a Northwestern Medicine patient.   “I am so glad to meet you,” Gmurczyk, a nephrologist and associate professor at Northwestern Medicine, said to Ginger when meeting her at a news conference on Thursday. “I’m so glad you got my kidney, and I can tell you’re going to take really good care of it.”   “I did not want to donate specifically to one person,” Gmurczyk told CNN, adding that with a kidney-paired donation, she felt like she had a chance to help more people.