The first kidney transplant from a live donor was carried out in the Canaries on the 10th October. The recipient, a 52 year old man, received his new kidney from his 51 year old wife. Both are now back at home. The University Hospital of the Canaries estimates that it will now carry out between 20 and 30 transplants of this type each year.
The donor was in surgery three hours or so, compared with just two hours for the recipient; the donor was allowed home in less than a week, whereas the recipient was released from hospital after two and a half weeks. Hospital sources state that there is a better survival rate with live donor transplants. Another advantage is that the patient can receive the transplant prior to the dialysis stage, which improves results, can reduce waiting lists, and improves quality of life.
The Medical Director of the hospital called the operation a landmark in the programme of renal transplantation, after 26 years of carrying out 2,000 kidney transplants from deceased donors. He praised the Canarians for facilitating this number of transplants over this period: the Canaries is one of the regions with the greatest number of donors.
Source Canarias24Horas 
They've had the opportunity because of the larger percentage of kidney donors here. 
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