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Retired judge Howard Broadman helped his grandson get a kidney in the future — and he didn't even need time travel to do it.
He did have to make an incredibly generous move, though.
Three years ago, he donated one of his kidneys — not to his beloved grandson, but to a total stranger. Yep. You read that right. A stranger.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMzIyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjQ1NTUyMn0.9LMf_HWwqtb0lFJW2e268gTnIEtfvEvYgGfaQWf9jUA/img.jpg?width=980" id="f0063" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35fff40c2d1b5072b85d3cb27d1a1f69" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Image via <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/19533229/origin.jpg">UCLA Health</a>.</small></p><p>You see, Broadman's grandson is Quinn, a little boy born with only one kidney — one kidney that isn't fully functioning. Broadman may be too old to donate by the time Quinn needs a transplant. </p><p>At first, he considered donating to a complete stranger anyway. He'd join the list of living donors fittingly called “altruistic donors” and hope for karma to come back around and help Quinn in the future. </p><p><strong>Instead, he came up with a brilliant idea. </strong></p><p>That stranger he donated his kidney to? Her name is Kathy DeGrandis. And her sister (who hadn't previously donated because she wasn't compatible with Kathy), donated to a stranger, whose family donated to someone else. </p><p>How does this lead back to Quinn? Well, thanks to his grandfather’s innovative thinking, Quinn gets a voucher for that kidney he might need in the future.</p><p>“I didn't know anything about kidney donations or anything like that,” Broadman says. But learning that his grandson's life was on the line got him thinking.</p><h2>He realized that the supply of donated kidneys doesn't even come close to keeping up with the number of people who need them.</h2><p>To get a transplant in the future, Quinn would have to join a list that's currently over 100,000 people long, according to the <a href="https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/Overview%20of%20The%20Big%20Ask-The%20Big%20Give2%20.pdf" target="_blank">National Kidney Foundation</a>. </p><p><strong>It's a disturbing wait, with only about 18,000 transplants taking place every year.</strong></p><p>That’s why Broadman brought his simple idea to medical professionals at UCLA. He proposed that he’d donate a kidney to a stranger now, and Quinn would get a voucher for a kidney in the future. </p><p>And, in the end, he wouldn’t only save one stranger’s life.</p><h2>Now, his simple proposal is touching more and more strangers' lives every year.</h2><p>The <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/transplants/kidney-exchange/giftcertificateprogram" target="_blank">UCLA Kidney Voucher Program</a>, in association with the <a href="https://www.kidneyregistry.org/info/voucher-program" target="_blank">National Kidney Registry</a>, connects patients in a sort of paying-it-forward system that Broadman describes as “a geometric progression of goodness.” </p><p>How it works: Someone like Broadman has a kidney to give and a loved one in need, but an obstacle like time stands in the way of a direct donation. </p><p><strong>So they donate to a stranger. Then their loved one (like the Lego-loving, soccer-playing, joyful kindergartner named Quinn) gets a voucher to become a high priority recipient when an appropriate match becomes available.</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMzIyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MTc2NTc3M30.MWo5w4PV4hDJhmLYxT7roHHzFWi55Ga6gDMhZ5L1-zM/img.jpg?width=980" id="32345" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a0c6559f971c130a6bebfd194aa5e39" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Image via <a href="http://ucla.multimedia-newsroom.com/index.php/2016/07/10/voucher-allows-you-to-donate-a-kidney-now-secure-one-for-later/">UCLA Health</a>.</small></p><p>The initial response to Broadman’s idea? Medical professionals told him that “nobody's ever wanted to do that before,” he says. </p><p>But he was ready to be the first, and a unique exchange program was born.</p><h2>Since its inception at UCLA, at least 30 hospitals now have this program, and <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/how-first-vouchers-in-ucla-kidney-donation-program-led-to-25-lifesaving-transplants" target="_blank">studies show</a> that it's making a real difference.</h2><p>Right now, only about 6,000 donations a year come from the most effective donors — living donors. </p><p>This voucher program is already increasing those numbers. So far, donation chains have led to <a href="https://gizmodo.com/this-leave-a-kidney-take-a-kidney-plan-is-so-weird-it-m-1818807584" target="_blank">68 transplants</a> and 21 vouchers issued to patients in need. People who aren't compatible with their loved ones can donate to help them anyway.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUzMzIyOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDMwNzE5Nn0.inIHvC9iD1ncMwaYXcAJ1UYL2b3NQtDDT7FIzPsay3s/img.jpg?width=980" id="645be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3c54b97e3398976b70593bc2437cf9e3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Image via <a href="http://ucla.multimedia-newsroom.com/index.php/2016/07/10/voucher-allows-you-to-donate-a-kidney-now-secure-one-for-later/">UCLA Health</a>.</small></p><p>“Sometimes you need to break out of your pattern, look at things from a different viewpoint,” Broadman suggests. This program, he says, is his “small gift to the universe.”</p><p>He pulls no punches in admitting that donating a kidney is a painful procedure. <strong>But he’ll tell you that it's worth it to give a fighting chance to someone — like that adorable youngster Quinn, or your own loved one.</strong></p><p>“It's my best legacy. I don't know any gift better,” Broadman says as his voice cracks. “It's pretty powerful.”</p><p><em>Inspired? Learn more about the <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/transplants/kidney-exchange/giftcertificateprogram" target="_blank">UCLA Kidney Voucher Program</a>.</em></p>
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