BATON ROUGE — People with kidney failure can wait years for a new kidney.

There just are not enough organs from deceased donors to fill the need. Living-donor kidney transplants are an alternative.

"As long as you're healthy and have good kidney function, then you could potentially qualify to be a kidney donor,” transplant surgeon Carrie Jadlowiec said.

It starts with a thorough medical evaluation.

"That gives us a good sense of where we're starting, and then it also allows us to better predict where will your kidney function be at in five years and 10 years after you donate,” Jadlowiec said.

Jadlowiec says both surgical and medical risks are low, thanks to advanced technology.

"For all kidney donors, that risk is less than 1%, which is what we see within the general population,” Jadlowiec said.

It's a minimally invasive surgery, which Jadlowiec says means that surgeons “do it through small incisions, which helps with faster recovery."

Full recovery can take up to six weeks, but many people start feeling better around three weeks after surgery.

"The biggest benefit is the ability to help someone and to really change their life,” Jadlowiec said.