Chain of kidney transplants begins in San Francisco hospital

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The first of a series of interlinked kidney transplants involving six patients and six donors has started at a San Francisco hospital.

The surgeries started Thursday at California Pacific Medical Center with three patients and three donors. The rest of the operations will happen Friday.

Transplant chains are an option when donors are incompatible with relatives or friends who need kidneys. In this case, six donors are instead giving kidneys to strangers found through a software matching program.

The software was developed by 59-year-old David Jacobs, a kidney recipient whose brother died of kidney failure.

Medical center spokesman Dean Fryer says the operations are the largest kidney donation chain conducted at one hospital on the West Coast. They're also the largest in the 44-year history of the hospital's transplant center.