Second chance
While increasingly commonplace, organ transplants are still in massive demand. We speak to three people whose lives have ben saved by other people’s organs
We may be a small island, but per head of the population, Cyprus has the number one position in kidney transplants in the world. A total of 667 kidney transplants have been carried out on the island since the first successful operation on October 30, 1986. Since then, doctors, equipment and public awareness have come a long way, even though the latter still remains the main problem facing practitioners in this field.
Despite transplants grabbing the headlines and high profile people such as AKEL leader Demetris Christofias speaking about the issue, it still seems to be uncharted territory. “When my sister donated her kidney to save my life, I felt like she’d become my second mother,” Christofias has said. He has frequently urged people to become organ donors.
“Although there is awareness in Cyprus, it only ever comes from relatives of the person in need of the transplant, which, of course, is why we are number one in the whole world. However, there is an acute need for ‘brain dead’ donors and this is where the public needs to be more aware,” President of the Cyprus Transplant Association, Dr George Kyriakides, said.
In 2005, 53 transplants took place, 43 of which were from live donors and 10 from those who were ‘brain dead’. “It’s not a matter of the public not accepting the fact that organs are needed or not wanting to donate but merely a matter of organisation and the right approach,” Kyriakides added, “people are aware and conscious. However, the Health Ministry and doctors need to realise that if someone is dying or ‘brain dead’, then they should consider getting permission from the relatives to donate their organs without holding back.”
We spoke to three people who have been given a second chance at life through organ donation.
Andreas Vasiliou, 12
Every night Andreas, president of his school and a keen football player, prays and crosses his pillow before sleeping. He has good reason to. Since fighting off leukaemia and more than one close encounter with death, the least he can do is thank God every night for giving him the chance to live again.
Andreas was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of five. “He just stopped eating at one point and my wife became extremely worried,” explained Andreas’ father Vassos. Andreas’ mother, Soulla, however, thought it best to take her five-year-old for a check up. At first, the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with him but further blood tests, in March 1999, showed leukaemia. “It was completely unexpected and we still don’t know how it was caused but then again it could happen to anybody. It isn’t hereditary,” said Vassos.
Andreas immediately began chemotherapy at the Makarios hospital in Nicosia, where the doctors informed his parents their son would need a bone marrow transplant. “At that point, the campaign to find a match began and we managed to gather over 2,000 donors, all willing to help Andreas.” The news struck a chord with TV stations and newspapers around the island and Cyprus was united in a battle to help young Andreas get through this. Despite a massive bicommunal search, no match was found. Months of desperation finally ended in a stroke of luck: “We were told a match had been located in the UK and we would have to leave immediately.”
Vassos Vasiliou, his wife and young Andreas left for London in October of the same year. However, it was not to be an easy ride. “Apparently, the donor wasn’t ready to give Andreas the transplant because she was pregnant.” Chemotherapy continued but Andreas wasn’t getting any better. “At one point he was so bad, we called our relatives in Cyprus and told them they should come to London and say goodbye because it looked like he wasn’t going to make it,” Vassos said. Andreas’ condition was critical but he managed to pull through.
The Vasiliou family packed their bags and came back to Cyprus in March 2001. Andreas was smiling but he wasn’t through it. Doctors informed the parents about a new option. “It was even new in the field of science but we went for it,” Vassos said. Andreas would have the bone marrow transplant but through cells found in an umbilical cord and placenta. In 1999 initial studies gave a good result for a lot of patients.
Time was running out. Doctors had already searched through 5.5 million donors worldwide but all directions pointed towards America. “At this point, he was surrounded by journalists everyday and thanks to the media a message that saved his life got through to a doctor in the States.” Doctor Jonga of the Memorial Hospital in New York had heard of the young Cypriot boy in need of a transplant and left no stone unturned until she found the right match. Again the family boarded a plane, to Texas this time, with Andreas’ condition worsening by the day. “Had Doctor Jonga not found a match, Andreas wouldn’t be here,” said Vassos.
As soon as they arrived, Andreas was submitted to tests and finally the transplant took place. However, Andreas seemed to be rejecting the transplant and in desperation, Andreas’ mother called a priest in Greece, who told them not to worry as Saint Marina would be with them the following day. “We didn’t pay much attention but when the doctor came screaming ‘Andreas is clean, Andreas is clean’, I couldn’t believe it. He then asked to see the Greek woman doctor who was in the room when they were drawing blood from Andreas. I told him there was no woman doctor and that we hadn’t sent anyone but the doctor saw her and spoke to her. She was by Andreas’ side all the time.”
Constantia, 29
Constantia was 21 years old when she realised something was terribly wrong but put it down to the removal six months earlier of her thyroid. However, when she fell into a coma, her parents and friends feared for her life. It then transpired that Constantia needed a kidney transplant.
“When my feet started swelling up and I couldn’t keep my food down, I knew something was wrong. My parents took me to the emergency room several times as well as to my private doctor but no one seemed to know what was happening to me.” Constantia was released and given medication to cure the symptoms but still there was no enlightenment as to what was wrong with her. “They even thought it was fatigue and stress. They kept sending me home and giving me more medication.”
15 days after the first symptoms appeared, Constantia fell into a coma and this time doctors took her parents seriously. “It was Christmas 1998 and I was in the hospital for three months before I began blood transfusion, which went on for one year.” But Constantia’s problems didn’t end there. During examinations and before the blood transfusion, doctors “accidentally punctured my kidney and it was causing internal bleeding”. A match was required immediately as Constantia’s life was hanging from a thread. Luckily, her father turned out to be a good match.
Constantia visited the hospital three times a week, going through haemodialysis for four hours each time. Her diet was limited to boiled potatoes, no fruit and soon she was down to 39kg. “Even though I was in an awful condition, my then boyfriend and I decided to get engaged. I could barely stand but if it wasn’t for him and my father I wouldn’t be here right now.”
On November 23, 1999, Constantia had the transplant. “It took me six months to feel better, one hundred per cent. I still had to watch my diet, I couldn’t drive but I felt like I was born again immediately after the operation.” Constantia and Petros married shortly after the operation but they couldn’t shake off the fact that the then 21-year-old came very close to losing her life. And the question remain
s: why?
“They were giving me different kinds of medication, which played a big part in the way my condition evolved, I was told later on. When I fell into a coma, my mother took the medication I was taking to the hospital and the nurses wondered if we had an elderly person with diabetes in the family as the medication was meant for such an occasion. After the operation, the file that contained all the information about my visits to the emergency room, magically disappeared,” Constantia said, “and there was no proof left of anything.” Constantia’s parents demanded an explanation but no one could give them one.
Constantia is currently living a happy life with her husb
and but the scars remain both physically and emotionally. “The incident has made me appreciate the small things in life and not worry about insignificant matters but at the same time, I feel as though I am in the handicapped corner.” Constantia didn’t want her last name mentioned or her picture taken, as the transplant has turned out to be a problem in her career. “I couldn’t find a job after the operation. I went to three different interviews and while everything was great and it looked like I was finally going to work, whenever I mentioned the transplant, the interviewers would send me on my way. I couldn’t even get an office job in the government ‘due to my problem’, as they said.” The 29-year-old felt rejected and even at her current job, her co-workers have no idea about her history. “I know they will eventually find out but at least I get to prove myself first, and prove there is nothing wrong with me,” she said.
Pavlos Georgiou, 34
Even after going through two kidney transplants, Pavlos lit up a cigarette and casually told stories of his time in the hospital while we sat chatting at a caf? in Nicosia. “You know, there’s nothing, I should be ashamed of,” he said, “if you think about it, I have four kidneys and you only have two.”
Pavlos was 20 when he underwent his first kidney transplant. “It felt like I was flying at the time, being 20 years old and enjoying my life but as soon as I was told I needed a transplant it was as if someone shot me down. It was a hard landing.” Fourteen years ago, on March 13, Pavlos was admitted to hospital and his mother’s kidney would save his life. “It was, truly, the greatest gift anyone had ever given me although there were complications at first.” Pavlos’ mother was overweight at the time and her life would be at risk if she were to donate her kidney to her son. “Even though I was already going through hell with the haemodialysis, I insisted on waiting until she lost some weight.” Pavlos described the procedure as “dying slowly and painfully” but he wasn’t ready to risk his mother’s life, so he remained in hospital for three months before the operation could take place.
Had the incident taken place today, Pavlos’ body would probably have accepted another donor’s kidney but 14 years ago, you had to be exact. “It had to be a perfect match or else it wouldn’t do. Now, the pharmaceutical regimen has changed. There is more equipment and more ways to save a person who needs a kidney because it doesn’t have to match 100 per cent.”
By 2003 Pavlos realised he was probably going to need a second transplant. “The symptoms were more or less the same but I was ready the second time around, and I had read almost everything that has to do with transplants.” Soon, he was back in hospital going through the same procedures and in need of another donor. “The second time, my brother donated his kidney and although it wasn’t a perfect match, that was fixed and I went through five months of haemodialysis and lost 60 kilos.” Despite being well just eight days after the first transplant, this time things were more complicated and Pavlos stayed in the hospital for 15 days.
Even while going in and out of hospital, Pavlos managed to continue to work, loading trucks at his job and refusing to listen to what the doctors were saying. “I was 20 years old and a rebel, so it’s a bit obvious why I went through so much. My life isn’t the same as I would want it to be. I still have to arrange my life around check-ups at the hospital and blood tests but I’m fine and healthy, so that’s the main thing.”
