Kamal Shah lost his kidneys at 24, right before he was set to leave for graduate school in the US. What followed was a transplant that failed within days, years of trial and error across dialysis therapies, and a decision to stop waiting for his life to resume. Instead of accepting a diminished existence, he co-founded NephroPlus, now Asia's largest dialysis network, built on a simple idea: call patients guests, treat them with dignity, and give them their lives back.
Category: TED Talks
TED (Technology Education Design) is a non-profit that believes powerful ideas, powerfully presented, move us: to feel something, to think differently, to take action.
TEDx events use the TED conference format but are independently organized by a local community.
TEDx Talks: Breakthrough in Dialysis Treatment
Javid Akherat is not a doctor, he is an engineer, and that outside perspective may be exactly why he found something nephrologists had missed. Using computational fluid dynamics, the same tools used to model airflow and turbulence, he discovered that the body's own veins try to reshape themselves in response to dialysis, and that this reshaping can be predicted, and even prevented, before it turns deadly.
TED-ED: How do your kidneys work?
Two bean-shaped organs, quietly running one of the most sophisticated filtration systems in the human body. Every day, your kidneys process about 180 liters of blood, sorting out what stays and what goes, sensing waste, balancing fluid, releasing the vitamins and hormones you need to stay alive. This TED-Ed video from Emma Bryce breaks down exactly how that happens, nephron by nephron. It's five minutes, and it just might change how you think about the two organs you never notice until something goes wrong with them.
TED-ED: How does kidney transplant surgery work?
The first kidney transplant only worked because the donor was an identical twin. This TED-Ed video from Alexander H. Toledo covers seventy years of medical progress since, and how the surgery actually works today, in just over five minutes.
TEDX Talks: Confessions of a kidney donor
When Alyssa Bates decided to donate a kidney to her younger brother, she went looking for a manual on what life would look like afterward. She never found one, so she wrote her own story instead. A competitive marathoner who ran Boston seven times, Alyssa shares how donating a kidney did not slow her down, it gave her a finish line worth crossing twice.
TEDx Talks: Queen of dialysis describes her dependence on a machine
Maddy Warren lost both kidneys at 13 years old and has spent more than 16 years hooked to a dialysis machine every night just to stay alive. But instead of letting the diagnosis define her, she has climbed Ben Nevis, jumped out of airplanes, and become a licensed solo skydiver. This talk is about what happens when a person decides that surviving and living are two very different things, and refuses to settle for just one.
TEDx Talks: How I found an organ donor through digital storytelling
Marc Coronel was a former amateur boxer who thought he already knew what courage looked like. Then a kidney disease diagnosis put him on a transplant waitlist with a rare blood type and a wait that could stretch a decade. Instead of staying silent, he posted a simple request online and found his donor within months, not from a blood relative, but from a stranger connected through his own sister.
TED Ideas: How one kidney donation can lead to a chain of 94 transplants
One kidney, given to a stranger, set off something bigger than anyone expected. Surgeon Jayme Locke calls herself part transplant expert and part matchmaker, and the chain she helped build has already reached 94 transplants, with more on the way. This is the story of how a single act of generosity can multiply into dozens of second chances.
TEDx Talks: What Makes a Person Decide to Donate His Kidney to a Stranger
A podcast about kidney donation chains changed Ned Brooks's life in the time it took to drive to the grocery store. In his TEDx talk, Ned tells the story of donating his kidney to a stranger at 65, and the foundation, Donor to Donor, that grew out of it.
TEDx Talks: Take My Kidney…Please
Some folks talk about generosity. Dan Howell lived it out, gallon jug of chilled urine and all. In his TEDx Omaha talk, Dan tells the whole story of becoming a living kidney donor at fifty-eight: the awkward lab tests, the six sleepless nights of doubt, and the moment his mother's voice settled it for good. It's funny. It's honest. And it just might be the nudge you need to think about donation yourself.