30 years: Kidney recipient calls for organ donation to become mandatory

[okarol]

30 years: Kidney recipient calls for organ donation to become mandatory

ELISA BLACK THE ADVERTISER FEBRUARY 23, 2014 7:08PM

A KIDNEY transplant recipient about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her surgery has called for organ donation to become mandatory.

Kathryn Cronin, 56, received a kidney in 1984 because of her polycystic kidney disease.

She was told at the time her kidney may last her five years - ten if she was lucky.

But in the almost 30 years since she was given the kidney, she has travelled the world, married, and given birth to son, Daniel, the child she calls “a miracle”.

Post-surgical medication meant Mrs Cronin was highly unlikely to conceive on her own. Multiple IVF attempts, including the use of donor eggs, failed, and she was told the only option left was adoption.

Six weeks later she fell pregnant naturally.

At the time, Mrs Cronin was one of the first women to give birth after a kidney transplant.

Today, more than 500 Australian and New Zealand women have given birth after a kidney transplant.

In 2012, there were 845 kidney transplants in Australia — 88 of those were in SA.

“If I hadn’t received my transplant I wouldn’t have had a second chance at life,’’ she said.

“The joy of marriage, of travelling overseas, the joy of having my son. None of that would have happened without my transplant.”

DonateLife Week begins on Monday, with a rose-planting ceremony at Bonython Park to remember donors, and Mrs Cronin is eager for the public to understand that people can have a normal life after receiving a transplant, and that mandatory donations would be a way to ensure many more people received the lifesaving organs they so desperately need.

“I am forever thankful to the family that made the decision to give me their loved one’s kidney,’’ she said.

“Being a mum is what I always wanted to be and I am now a registered organ donor as well. I can’t donate my kidneys, but I can give everything else. By donating organs you are not just helping one person, it can help 11, 12 people to have a better life.”

Donate Life SA state medical director Dr Sally Tideman said the five-year survival rates for kidney transplant today were at 93 to 95 per cent and data published by the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry shows that the longest surviving kidney donor recipient to date has lived for 43 years since their surgery.

The Rose Planting Ceremony will be held at Bonython Park’s Gift of Life garden at 10am.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/kidney-recipient-calls-for-organ-donation-to-become-mandatory/story-fnii5yv8-1226835438071

[Dman73]

They need to first pass the Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act which would eliminate the loss of the kidney after 36 months for inability to pay for transplant drugs.

I doubt that they could force someone to donate a kidney and that is why they call it a "gift of life".

You may increase organ donations by telling the family that their love one does not have to die entirely and could continue on by sharing a life with a transplant recipient. It is a win-win situation that benefits everyone.   

[cassandra]

They could make it an op-out system. Every one donates when dead, unless you registered that you are not prepared to save people's life's by donating an organ. And I'm sorry about the meds situation in the U.S.A and really poor countries

[Jean]

Absolutely!!!! It is foolish to take them with you.

[Whamo]

   I'll drink to that!  Make it mandatory.  By all means.