Living kidney donation in
Illinois
Verified centers in Illinois
Advocate Christ Medical Center
Oak Lawn, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeAdvocate Christ's living-donor page describes its own paired kidney donor exchange program, which lets a donor and recipient pair with an incompatible blood type or other incompatibility be paired with another donor and recipient pair so the kidneys can be exchanged.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Chicago, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeA pediatric program. Lurie Children's says living donor services for its transplants are provided through its partnership with the Kidney Transplantation Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Medical Center
Hines, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedHines VA's own news release says its kidney transplant program, including living donor transplants, runs in partnership with Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, and it directs interested donors to Loyola's own donor-screening site.
Loyola University Medical Center
Maywood, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeLoyola's living-donor page says incompatibility between a donor and recipient can often be worked out by filtering the recipient's blood or through Loyola's own pay-it-forward kidney exchange program.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Chicago, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeNorthwestern's kidney-donor page says its Organ Transplant Center performs kidney paired donation surgeries, including large multi-way paired exchanges.
OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
Peoria, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeOSF's living-donation page says its transplant program participates in national paired kidney exchange programs, and offers a living donor coordinator for prospective donors to speak with directly.
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeRush's living-kidney-donor page says its program participates in multiple national paired kidney exchange programs, and lists a dedicated line for people interested in becoming a living donor.
Springfield Memorial Hospital
Springfield, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedMemorial Health's transplant-care page says Springfield Memorial Hospital offers minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery for living kidney donors, through its Alan G. Birtch Center for Transplant Services.
University of Chicago Medical Center
Chicago, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedUChicago Medicine's living-donor page says it works with the National Kidney Registry to help link an incompatible donor and recipient pair with other pairs nationally, and lists a living donor intake coordinator to contact directly.
University of Illinois Medical Center
Chicago, IL
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeUI Health's living-kidney-donor page invites people interested in learning about kidney donation to reach its kidney transplant program directly by phone or email.
Living donors in Illinois: grade A
Illinois is among the better-protected states, with 5 of the seven protections tracked. Still worth reading which ones — they cover quite different things.
What the American Kidney Fund tracks, in every state
- Insurance companies cannot deny you life, disability or long-term care cover, or charge you more, because you donated
- Job-protected leave if you work for the state
- Job-protected leave if you work for a private employer
- Paid leave for living donors
- A tax credit or deduction for your donation costs
- Direct reimbursement of donation expenses
- A tax credit for employers who give donors paid leave
This is the full list AKF scores every state against — not a claim about which of these Illinois has. The fact sheet below has that detail, and it is more current than anything cached here.
Federal family leave can already cover donation. A law written for living donors has not passed yet.
The Department of Labor's position, set out in a formal opinion letter, is that donation surgery and the recovery after it count as a serious health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act whenever they involve an overnight hospital stay, as donation surgery commonly does. So if you are eligible under that Act, you can take leave to donate and recover, come back to the same or an equivalent job, and keep your group health cover while you are away. The leave itself is unpaid, though paid leave your employer offers can run alongside it. Eligibility depends on the size of your employer and your workplace, and on how long and how many hours you have worked there — the Department of Labor's fact sheet sets out the exact tests, and your employer's HR team can confirm them for you.
The Living Donor Protection Act would write that leave protection into the law itself, and would stop life, disability and long-term care insurers from refusing cover or charging more because you donated. It has not passed. The Senate version has cleared its committee and is awaiting a floor vote; the House version has not moved since it was introduced. Paid leave, and protection for anyone the family-leave law does not reach, depends on what your state has done.
U.S. Department of Labor, opinion letter FMLA2018-2-A; U.S. Department of Labor, FMLA eligibility fact sheet; Congress.gov, S. 1552 / H.R. 4583, checked 24 September 2026
What it costs, and what covers it
The recipient's insurance covers a donor's evaluation, surgery and follow-up. Programs like NLDAC reimburse travel, lodging, dependent care and lost wages for donors who need it — the donor guide walks through both, with sources.
Talk to someone who has donated
Mentors are volunteers with no stake in your decision either way.
Find a mentorPeople in Illinois looking for a donor
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Browse campaignsMy Kidney Story does not collect, store, or evaluate medical information, and nothing on this page is medical advice. Donor eligibility is determined solely by a transplant center after its own independent evaluation.
My Kidney Story is independent and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any center listed here, SRTR, OPTN or NLDAC.