Still smiling after four kidney transplants

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Still smiling after four kidney transplants
HEALTH
17 AUG 11 @ 01:46PM BY EMMA SCHMIDT

IF YOU think one kidney transplant is pretty tough, try having four.

Medical marvel Graham Lawn is recovering from his fourth organ transplant operation at Clayton’s Monash Medical Centre, but the 43-year-old told the Leader last week he had never felt better.

“I feel fantastic because of it,” Mr Lawn, a truck driver, said.

“It changes your life.”

Prof Peter Kerr, director of nephrology and Mr Lawn’s doctor since 1982, said it was rare for someone to have so many kidney transplants.

“The death rate of people on dialysis for his age group is 100 times higher than the normal age,” Prof Kerr said. “To go 30 years (of transplants) is quite remarkable.”

Mr Lawn was diagnosed at the age of 12 with kidney reflux, a condition he was born with which caused urine to travel from his bladder to his kidneys.

He had his first kidney transplant six months later, only to have the organ fail in just eight months after a schoolyard accident saw him take a heavy hit to the stomach.

Mr Lawn’s next transplants were in 1987, then in 1995 and 2005, with stints on dialysis machines in between, when each kidney failed.

All kidneys were donated from anonymous donors.

“I’m so grateful that the people, in their hour of need, donated the organs,” he said.

Prof Kerr said this latest kidney was the best match Mr Lawn had received so far, and hoped it would last up to eight years.

He said Mr Lawn’s previous transplants had been successful because he took very good care of himself and paid attention to his illness when needed.

“He’s a good example of someone who has been able to benefit from that, and he will go back to work and contribute.”

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/still-smiling-after-four-kidney-transplants/