The Wexner Medical Center, which houses the Comprehensive Transplant Center. Credit: Courtesy of the Wexner Medical Center
Three days a week, Ed Kottenstette sits through dialysis treatment, watching his blood filter through a machine that does the work his kidneys no longer can.?
Kottenstette spends over 12 hours a week receiving treatment. Until a donor is found, this will be his routine for the foreseeable future.
For now, every session is a reminder of the same reality: there is no guaranteed timeline, and every day is a waiting game.?
“In our area, I tell people around a four-year wait time to get a deceased organ,” said Dr. Liza Cholin, a nephrologist who specializes in patients’ care after receiving a kidney transplant. “It also depends on your blood group and other typing factors that can make people’s waits go even longer than that.”?
There are roughly 123,000 Americans waiting for an organ, with over 101,000 in need of a kidney, according to the National Kidney Foundation.?
“In the course of going to dialysis down in Circleville, Ohio, there are four people that I’m aware of that are on the waitlist,” Kottenstette said. “Two that are desperately needing kidney transplants, and one’s going to take place in early March.”?
Some candidates will spend years looking for a donor, within their families or beyond.?
“We encourage the patient, family members or friends to ask around in their community,” Cholin said. “Once somebody has expressed interest in being a living donor, we give them our contact information, and we’ll start the evaluation process.?
For Kottenstette, his time on the waitlist has only been around a year, after receiving the diagnosis of end-stage renal failure in April 2025.?
“You can see the difference in the timeline for people, which is based on blood type,” Kottenstette said. “Somebody who has AB negative might be waiting six, seven, eight years versus someone who’s O positive. I’m B positive, which is why I’m roughly five years out.”?
Getting on the waitlist requires extensive testing between previous diagnoses, bloodwork and questionnaires that are gathered to be presented before a selection committee at the transplant center.?
“There’s a large group of people of all different backgrounds that discuss my case, or anyone else’s case,” Kottenstette said. “They determine the status, or your viability. ‘Can you accept a kidney?’ ‘Will the kidney work?’ ‘Will it last?’ There’s a lot that goes into it.”?
Once approved for the waitlist, the challenge becomes finding an organ. Living donors tend to be more encouraged because of the quality of the organ and how it functions once transplanted, Cholin said. Organs that came from someone who died can vary in longevity, timelines after transplantation and recovery.
“There’s a lot more variability in the type of organ you’re going to receive. If you were receiving an organ that traveled from far away, there’s usually a delay in the kidney waking up and starting to work,” Cholin said. “The way that the overall recovery process looks afterwards can be substantially different in the recipient of a deceased organ versus a living organ.”
When searching for a donor, the database isn’t just for central Ohio hospitals — in fact, it spans far beyond Columbus.?
“The whole transplant system has morphed into something a little bit better,” Kottenstette said. “It really didn’t matter if I signed up for other facilities, because Ohio State is made aware of available kidneys that are coming up.?
If someone chooses to be a living donor, Cholin said that the evaluation process is similar to that of the receiver’s.?
“There’s initially a screening questionnaire that we’ll have them fill out, and then afterwards, there’s a series of tests that we have them go through just to make sure that donating would be at minimal risk for them in the long term as well,” Cholin said.?
Throughout this entire process, there are multiple different specialists, like Cholin, who work with candidates on their journey. Kottenstette referenced his own team of people and how they’ve been influential in his time receiving care.?
“It’s like going up a staircase,” Kottenstette said. “Every step I take, I’m always connected with a new care coordinator who follows my journey. You’re never left wondering, ‘Who do I need to call if I ever have questions?’”
Although the transplant system is becoming more connected and advanced than ever, there will always be a waitlist, with people like Kottenstette remaining on it until the needed organ becomes available.?
“There are a lot of different groups and societies that are trying to utilize these organs as much as possible and improve preservation techniques. Even working on artificial kidneys, but a lot of those things are still very much in the basic stages,” Cholin said. “So for now, the donors that we have are simply the most important thing that we can utilize to help people in their lifetime.”
More information about organ donation and Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Living Donor Program can be found at The National Kidney Foundation or the medical center’s website.?
