[Linkpost] “How I failed to donate my kidney” by Santeri T 🔹

This is a link post.

Cross-posted from my personal blog after strong encouragement from two people. The text is partially personal musings over my journey through the pre-surgery process, and partially a review of arguments why it might or might not make sense for a person who cares about effective altruism to donate a kidney.

Some of the content is specific to where I am based in (Finland), and some of the content is less honed than I'd like, but if I didn't timebox my writing and just push whatever I have at the end of it I probably would not publish anything. Hope you enjoy!

June 4, 2025

I was eating phở in the city center when the call came. The EM study had been done.

"Bad news," my nephrologist said. "You have a kidney disease."

The words hit harder than the spicy broth. After more than nine months [...]

---

Outline:

(01:13) The Decision

(02:04) The QALY Trade-off

(07:02) My Journey Begins

(10:22) Fixing Scott's CT Scan Calculations

(12:45) The Troubles

(13:10) The Microhematuric Mystery

(14:21) The Kidney Biopsy

(15:31) The Final Verdict

(16:10) Understanding Thin Basement Membrane Disease

(17:54) The Silver Linings

(18:35) Lessons Learned from a Failed Donation

(20:39) The End

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
July 7th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fTQpM4We3JmCH6k4Q/how-i-failed-to-donate-my-kidney

Linkpost URL:
https://open.substack.com/pub/nihilcavum/p/thoughts-on-kidney-donations?r=f8fef&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---