FOUR kidney patients have been given a second chance at life after undergoing lifesaving kidney transplants this year.
This is because, unlike last year, the Paraskevaidion Surgical and Transplant Foundation received two cadaver organ donors within the first two months of the New Year.
“Last year, we only had one cadaver organ donor for the entire 12 months,” said Dr George Kyriakides, who heads the Foundation.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Kyriakides said the number of cadaver donors varied from year to year.
“In 2002, we had eight donors, last year we only had one and now this year we’ve already had two, with possible a third donor within the next day or two,” he said.
Cadaver donors are necessary where live donors are not considered acceptable or for patients who do not have a relative to donate a kidney. Although Cyprus is a frontrunner in transplants per capita, the donations are primarily from patients’ relatives and not from cadavers.
This year’s donors were not young patients, so only the kidneys could be harvested, he said. “One of the donors was 65 and the other was 67, so we only took the kidneys because their livers and hearts were not in good condition. The third possible donor has also had two coronary bypasses and so again we will only be able to use the kidneys.” Nevertheless, even just the kidneys have helped contribute towards saving the lives of four people in end stage renal failure. “The four patients are doing well and so far their bodies have accepted the kidneys,” he said.
Another 118 kidney patients are still on the donor list and 20 liver and heart patients need transplants.
Kyriakides said: “The donor list always maintains the same levels year after year because patients die and others develop a problem and are added on the list. For instance, if you have end stage heart failure that means your heart is no longer working and it is at the end of its function. And unlike kidney failure, heart patients cannot be kept alive by mechanical substitutes and so die without a transplant. As one dies, another one becomes sick and is added on the list. Only kidney transplant lists get longer because patients can be kept maintained with dialysis.”
There are also four children between the ages of 13 months and nine years currently awaiting donors, said Dr Avraam Elia, Makarios hospital’s paediatric nephrologist. Although the children are currently undergoing dialysis and are not yet in total kidney failure, they will need a transplant at some point. “We try to keep their kidneys going as long as possible because a transplanted kidney only has a 15 to 20-year lifespan before another transplant is necessary, and so the longer we wait the better it is.”
However, if cadaver donors are not found the children’s parents, will donate one of their kidneys. “Normally we’d prefer a cadaver because the parents are young and it is not really ethical to remove a young person’s kidney since you never know in the next 50 years what can happen to the remaining organ. However, it is their choice and they want to save their children and if we have no other option we will go ahead with the transplant,” he said.
Kyriakides insisted: “We have to keep raising public awareness on the importance of cadaver organ donations.
“Even though we have had a satisfactory number of donations so far this year, we have to keep fighting.”
