Living kidney donation in
Tennessee
Verified centers in Tennessee
Erlanger Medical Center
Chattanooga, TN
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedErlanger's nephrology and kidney transplant page says it performed the region's first hand-assisted, laparoscopic living-donor nephrectomy, a minimally invasive kidney-removal procedure that allows a quicker recovery for the donor.
Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
Memphis, TN
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedA pediatric program. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's site says the Methodist Transplant Institute partners with Le Bonheur Children's Hospital on pediatric kidney transplant care, and that living-donor transplantation is offered as an option for its pediatric patients.
Methodist University Hospital
Memphis, TN
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeMethodist Transplant Institute's living-kidney-donation page says it partners with the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation to pair incompatible donor-recipient pairs with other pairs nationwide, and that donors meet with a surgeon, nephrologist, and social worker.
Saint Thomas Hospital
Nashville, TN
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchangeAscension Saint Thomas's kidney-transplant page says its living donor program includes a paired donor exchange through the National Kidney Registry, and that every living donor completes a thorough medical screening as part of the evaluation.
University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville
Knoxville, TN
NLDAC financial assistance · not yet verifiedPaired exchange · not yet verifiedUT Medical's transplant-services page says its Living Donor Coordinator helps connect a prospective donor with the program, and that a living-donor transplant can be planned around everyone's schedule rather than the emergency surgery a deceased-donor transplant requires.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN
NLDAC financial assistancePaired exchangeVanderbilt's kidney-transplant living-donor page says it offers paired kidney donations for a donor-recipient pair with an incompatible blood type or tissue, exchanging a kidney with another such pair, and that every donor is paired with an independent living donor advocate.
Living donors in Tennessee: grade C
Tennessee has 2 of the seven protections tracked. Worth checking exactly which before you plan time off — the fact sheet below has the detail, and your transplant center's donor advocate will know it too.
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 Tennessee 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
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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.