TABLE 5.

Interpersonal Benefits of Living Kidney Donation

Benefit	Representative Quote
Closer relationships with recipient and family	I think it just made him [the recipient] appreciate the sacrifice I was willing to make a little more. I think it made him respect me and appreciate me a little bit more than he did previously (Participant 44: child to parent, noninterdependent).
	[The donation] sort of changed my perspective that I, my family was more important than living off of ramen in the city and now I live next door to my mom and dad, in between my sister and my mom and dad (Participant 13: child to parent, interdependent).
Involvement in donation advocacy	We did the kidney walk and we were much more outspoken and much more involved in organ donation and that kind of thing and like I said dad wasn’t even an organ donor before, so it definitely makes you more aware of the cause and need for organ donation (Participant 13: child to parent, interdependent).
	I guess it made me feel much more strongly—not that I wasn’t before—but much more strongly about organ donation … I would tell my story as much as I could … that made me feel good that I could come back and be an advocate for that (Participant 16: spouse, interdependent).
Spiritual and/or religious benefits	I think it made me a stronger person. My belief was stronger, my faith and trust in the lord, it just … It made me stronger in the way that I could see what I did (Participant 7: parent to child, interdependent).
Preserve family unit	I watch my dad with my kids and I mean like, cause I live next to my sister too, so it’s like a circus 24 h a day. She has 2 kids, I have 2 kids, and when my dad pulls up at 4 o’clock every day, they all like rush and he can’t even get out of his truck … he can’t go into his garage to work on anything without the boys like driving him insane and he loves it … He just stops and does whatever and does all these crazy things for the grandkids and like I look at him, I’m like I’m so blessed to be able to provide him with that … And, it’s such a great feeling, you know. I was able to do that, me and you know the team of [laughs], but that’s pretty incredible (Participant 13: child to parent, interdependent).
Recognition or appreciation	As far as elevating the status, like the people that are aware of what we’ve been through … from the church and the community, they put us you know, they looked at us in a different way. So, we enjoyed some privileges (Participant 13: child to parent, interdependent).
Sense of courage, confidence, and resilience	Well, I figured if I could do that, I can do anything. It gave me a sense of confidence, Like wow if I can do that I can pretty much tackle anything (Participant 28: parent to child, noninterdependent).
Avoiding guilt of not donating	If I hadn’t been able to [donate], or no one was able to, I can’t imagine the torment that that would cause if [the recipient] hadn’t had a chance. I just can’t even imagine that. The gift of being given the opportunity, just is really invaluable (Participant 56: parent to child, interdependent).
Increased independence	Tonight I’m going to have to work late. I mean, we’re able to do that because I don’t have to rush home to put him on a machine (Participant 51: spouse, interdependent).
Community of other living donors	With the people who … may have family members who are going through something like that and I mentioned there’s kind of a bond or a trust. People who have gone through it before (Participant 52: child to parent, interdependent).
Improved household dynamics	He was able to help me around the house, just to be a partner, you know. My life improved when—it’s, you know, marriage is a partnership and we were a team and he was sick and once he got better, you know, it was, our lives were better (Participant 51: spouse, interdependent).
Improved marital quality	I don’t think we—Who knows if we’d still be married had we not donated and done the surgery… It was stressful. He, you know, he was far more volatile … He was scared he was going to die … And, I mean, it was tough. There was one time I brought him the wrong brand of chicken nuggets … But the home hemo was definitely a lifestyle improvement and the kidney was the best improvement … [It improved our relationship] drastically
Recipient or donor able to see children grow, age	Oh [if I hadn’t donated] it would’ve been terrible … he would have been more sickly … my daughter had a baby, he got to see his grandchildren, um you know we had holidays and birthdays and celebrations for the next 10 y (Participant 41: spouse, interdependent).
Improve donor’s social life	Yeah, we can do a lot more. You know, with my husband being healthy and just dealing with his mental health at the moment at home that really helps me with work so then we can go out and have fun (Participant 51: spouse, interdependent).
Donor and recipient able to have children	We never would have been able to have a baby … I have a child. That’s brought me a lot of happiness. We had one together (Participant 51: spouse, interdependent).