News | Dept. of Surgery

Organ Donation: How Does It Work?

Written by Greg Glasgow | April 24, 2025

Kidney transplant surgeries save thousands of lives each year, but their success depends on many factors — chief among them people’s willingness to be organ donors either after death or while they are still living.

In honor of National Donate Life Month in April, we sat down with Thomas Bak, MD, associate professor of transplant surgery in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, to learn more about the kidney transplant process.