Smoking and donation

[YollyD_NKF]

Can smokers be living donors?

[marcyc NKF Ambassador NKF Peer Mentor]

Anytime you are having a major surgery, smoking increases your risk. Call your local transplant center to ask this. They would do a lot of testing to see if you are healthy enough. Smoking hurts all the small blood vessels in your body, heart, kidneys included.

[SusanaKBean]

Most transplant centers will ask you to stop smoking at least 4-6 weeks prior to surgery. However, it is not something written in stone. As Marcy suggested, call your local transplant center or even go online to see if they have the requirements listed.

[Sulyn]

Hello - I do not know. I suggest you ask your The National Kidney foundation or any hospital near you that does kidney transplants.

[Mcastro1013]

I was a smoker when I started the process of becoming a donor it was asked that I stop due to risks that become higher as a smoker, although I don't think it's mandatory it highly recommended.