Brotherly love led to a kidney transplant

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Brotherly love led to a kidney transplant

Last updated at 15:56, Thursday, 10 December 2009

WHEN Alistair McDougall donated a kidney to his brother John it sharply brought to their attention the value of people signing up for the organ transplant programme.
The brothers tell their remarkable story to LEO CLARKE

    * Related article: Last year 54 people died waiting for organ

ALASTAIR and John McDougall share a very special bond – just weeks ago Alastair donated a kidney to his brother.

Without his generosity John’s future looked bleak. His one good kidney was failing and he faced the prospect of dialysis up to three times a week until a suitable donor came along.

Then Alastair stepped in.

He wanted to help and on October 4 went with his brother to Hammersmith Hospital, in London, for surgery.

For four days, they were in beds next to each other as they prepared for operations which would have a dramatic effect on their futures.

Now this gift of life has hardened the resolve of the brothers to promote the organ transplant programme, where the need for donations has recently been highlighted nationally.

The story for the brothers began in the summer, when John approached Alastair about the possibility of the donation, and the process began.

Soon Alastair, 48, was making a regular trips to London for tests before donating one of his kidneys.

“We were very fortunate, my kidneys were in really good shape and we were a very close match, blood and everything else. It couldn’t be closer,” said Alastair, of the Gill, Ulverston.

It was also a good time for John, now living in Hatfield but originally from Ulverston, who had undergone a fitness regime in preparation for surgery.

Had he gone on dialysis beforehand the surgery would have been trickier, he said.

“It was a marvellous emotional process between me and my brother,” said Alastair, a cricket development officer for Barrow and Cumbria.

“There is loads of ups. There is no downs with it. The night before you go in you are thinking, what’s going to happen when they are putting biro on your back and saying let’s make sure we don’t get these two mixed up. It’s a process I am really quite proud of, but you can only get that by seeing how other people cope with it.”

Alastair, who has carried a donor card since passing his driving test, said: “We were in the next bed to each other all the time. When you wake up your brother is coming back from surgery he’s sort of saying hello, it’s quite an emotional time really.

“He’s really grateful, as anybody would be, and he knows that it will change his life. Within six months he will be able to travel away and go for his holidays abroad. Previous to that he had to be within a three-hour distance of Hammersmith, in case a donor did arise.”

Following surgery, Alastair’s wound was sealed with superglue and now his kidney is expected to grow by another 20 per cent to compensate for the loss of the other.

He said: “People have said to me you must be brave having it done, but that doesn’t really come into it. Certainly you would probably do it for your own family, and if it came to that decision, it’s a no-brainer. He’s got another life now, him and his family.”

Management consultant John discovered his kidneys weren’t functioning properly around 1970, but the problem became more focused about seven years ago when a more marked deterioration took place.

That led to a hospital visit and John a referral to a consultant, who told him the problem had been with him probably before his birth, and that the kidneys were deteriorating.

“One of them wasn’t working at all, and from then on it became a condition that I just had with me,” said John, 58.

In 2000, John’s condition was described as chronic kidney disease which would eventually mean a transplant or dialysis.

Last year his kidney went below 20 per cent working capacity, and in January this year he went on the transplant list. The average waiting list in his group, said John, is about two-and-a-half years.

He said: “I knew I was going to get to a situation where within 12 months, if a kidney hadn’t arrived, I would have to go on dialysis. So during the course of the year I looked at the possibility of a transplant from a live donor.

Although the bond between the brothers is strong, John was wary about the surgery for some time because of the impact it could have on Alastair and his family.

“I wasn’t sure for quite some time that I would want to go ahead and have a transplant from a live donor,” said John. “But having gone into the literature and a video is available, I was reassured that it was perfectly possible for somebody to be able to donate a kidney and live a normal life afterwards, with no adverse impact on them. It was only then when I was assured about it that I talked to Alastair, and he was marvellous.

“Straight from the outset he said that he wanted to help and it was very much him that wanted to go forward with it.

“In October, we went ahead and had the transplant. They call it the gift of life. It is quite humbling really. What can you say as an individual when somebody makes that type of gesture? I wouldn’t have expected anything other than that from Alastair on that level, but I was humbled by it and as a brother it has meant a great deal to me and to my family.”

Talking about the organ transplant programme, John said: “You don’t really understand the importance of this until you are directly involved. Unless you are somebody who has a condition or are a close member of the family, then the knowledge about what the condition is and the ability of somebody to help is quite raw.

“I think it is important to say that anybody who is a living donor will be only allowed to be one if they are properly assessed so it will not have a negative effect on them, so the NHS makes sure that any individual coming forward is in a fit position to give that kidney, and if somebody is a fit person then they will be able to give a kidney without that having an impact on their ability to live normally for the rest of their life. “It’s a big step for people. I appreciate that. It is a marvellous gift to be able to do.”

John will remain on steriods for the remainder of his life and is at risk of rejection for 12 months following the transplant.

He says: “Of all the options which were available, this was the best one, but I remain with a condition that will have to be managed for the rest of my life.

“But it means the future that I’ve got is much more of a possibility, and there isn’t such a cloud over it as it would have been had this not happened. Had I gone on to dialysis that is such a limiting factor on your life.”

Alastair said of the procedure: “Everybody has a small amount of doubt in the back of the mind but the pros outweigh the cons by a long way.”

First published at 12:58, Thursday, 10 December 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk

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