Losing a Kidney to Save a Life: Meaning Making of Bereaved Altruistic Kidney Donors Post-Donation.

In recent decades, the numbers of altruistic living kidney donations (AKD) have increased. Although much is known about deceased organ donation and AKD in general, less is known about the experience of bereaved individuals who chose to altruistically donate their kidney post-loss, particularly regar...

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Published in:Journal of Loss & Trauma Vol. 30; no. 8; pp. 1079 - 1103
Main Authors: Frei-Landau, Rivi, Lifshitz, Etty, Guez, Jonathan
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/15325024.2025.2477524
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        atl: Losing a Kidney to Save a Life: Meaning Making of Bereaved Altruistic Kidney Donors Post-Donation.
      aug:
        au:
          Frei-Landau, Rivi
          Lifshitz, Etty
          Guez, Jonathan
        affil:
          The Loss, Disability & Resilience through a Multicultural Lens Lab, Faculty of Psychology, Achva Academic College, Shikmim, Israel
          The Culturally-Sensitive Clinical Psychology Program, Achva Academic College, Shikmim, Israel
      su:
        Israel
        Families & psychology
        Altruism
        Qualitative research
        Interviewing
        Content analysis
        Organ donation
        Psychological adaptation
        Bereavement
        Trust
        Grief
        Loss (Psychology)
        Chronic kidney failure complications
        Kidney transplantation
        Judgment sampling
        Thematic analysis
      sug:
        subj:
          Families & psychology
          Altruism
          Qualitative research
          Interviewing
          Content analysis
          Organ donation
          Psychological adaptation
          Bereavement
          Trust
          Grief
          Loss (Psychology)
          Israel
          Chronic kidney failure complications
          Kidney transplantation
          Judgment sampling
          Thematic analysis
      keyword:
        Altruistic living kidney donations
        bereavement
        continuing bonds
        grief
        meaning-making
        Altruistic living kidney donations
        bereavement
        continuing bonds
        grief
        meaning-making
      ab: In recent decades, the numbers of altruistic living kidney donations (AKD) have increased. Although much is known about deceased organ donation and AKD in general, less is known about the experience of bereaved individuals who chose to altruistically donate their kidney post-loss, particularly regarding their grief-related meaning-making process post-donation. Employing a qualitative approach, ten bereaved individuals who altruistically donated a kidney were interviewed about their grief experiences post-donation. Content analysis revealed five themes: regaining control by giving life vs. uncontrollable loss, finding meaning through donation, continuing bonds via donation, repair of connection with the deceased via donation, establishing new bonds with the recipient. The findings are discussed in light of the Continuing bonds as well as Meaning making Theories and underscore the possible affordances of AKD in the process of coping with grief. Implications for facilitating best donation experiences for grieving individuals are highlighted.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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