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NBC closed with a heartwarming Making a Difference feature from Tom Costello. He introduced us to Keith Melancon, a transplant surgeon at Georgetown Medical Center in Washington DC, who orchestrated a series of 14 surgeries over four days by which seven different kidney patients received an organ from seven living donors. Costello explained that kidneys pose an especial crisis for African-Americans, who make up 32% of the 80,000 waiting for transplants nationwide. "Minorities often build up antibodies that cause organ rejection so Melancon helped pioneer a process to filter the antibodies from blood plasma making a transplant a reality." The payoff came two weeks after the surgery when donor and recipient were introduced for the first time.
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