CBS NEWSMarch 5, 2015, 11:17 AM Last Updated Mar 6, 2015 8:20 AM EST
UPDATE: The first three kidney transplants were completed Thursday; three more are taking place Friday.
SAN FRANCISCO — Twelve patients are preparing to participate in a rare, two day, six-way paired kidney donation transplant at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center.
The six donors and six recipients involved will travel to the Bay Area from as far as Arizona, CBS San Francisco reports.
A paired kidney donation is when a living kidney donor is not a match for a relative who needs a kidney, so they donate to a stranger instead, while another donor is paired with the relative in need.
“This is a different type in which an altruistic donor starts a domino type of transplant. Her kidney goes to the first recipient, another gives a kidney to the next, on down the line,” transplant surgeon Dr. William Bry told KPIX-TV.