Death at World Cup prompts warning for Transplant GamesKATE BENSON
July 17, 2010
Organ transplant patients attending the World Transplant Games in South Africa have been warned to take special precautions after a NSW man, given two kidneys in the past 15 years, died last week from an infection picked up in a hospital there.
Phillip Walker, 39, from Lismore, was in Durban to watch the World Cup but developed gastroenteritis while staying with other Australian fans at a tent city at the Kingsmead Oval.
Mr Walker, born with the kidney disease Alports syndrome, had represented Australia at several World Transplant Games. In Durban, he was taken to Entabeni Hospital but had breathing difficulties and started to bleed from his nose and mouth, his father, Tony Walker, said.
He then developed pneumonia, septicemia and a third infection, believed to have been acquired in the hospital. He was put on a ventilator but died on July 6.
His death has prompted a warning from the president of The Transplantation Society and director of renal services at Westmead Hospital, Jeremy Chapman, who says organ recipients must be vigilant when travelling overseas, particularly when visiting countries rife with illnesses such as yellow fever, because they cannot be given live vaccines. Professor Chapman urged those wanting to attend the World Transplant Games in Durban in 2013 to seek advice from their doctors and to avoid eating raw or unhygienically prepared food.
About 17 per cent of all deaths in 2008 among transplant recipients were the result of infection, primarily septicemia and bacterial lung infections, because patients must take life-long drugs to suppress their immune systems. Patients who had been on dialysis also aged faster and were more susceptible to heart attack, stroke and cancer. ''Some people cannot, and should not, travel at all, but for others it's not an issue,'' Professor Chapman said.
He said last year's games, held on the Gold Coast, had presented a threat to competitors because the H1N1 virus had been rampant, but as long as people took precautions the event was ''a fantastic opportunity''.
Mr Walker, a former publican and father of two, had a cadaver kidney transplant in the mid-1990s but it had been unsuccessful, his father said. He was given a second kidney in 2005 and had also undergone an aortic valve replacement.
One friend wrote on Facebook: ''Life threw so much at you Phil but you never gave up smiling, trying harder and best of all you did not give up on life.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/death-at-world-cup-prompts-warning-for-transplant-games-20100716-10e7s.html
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