New kidney allows life to begin again at 60By Marjory Inglis, health reporter
Life is beginning again at 60 for Carolann Bushby who celebrates her birthday today with a new kidney.
After years of curtailing her activities, Carolann is looking forward to Christmas and many more birthdays thanks to the generosity of an unknown family.
“I just cannot believe it,” she said. “Just to be free of the machine is a new life—not just for me, but my husband and my daughter as well.”
Before her transplant, Carolann had to hook herself up to a machine in her home that took over the work of her failed kidneys and cleansed her blood for eight or nine hours every night while she tried to sleep.
She had to take early retirement from a senior post in the education department at Perth and Kinross Council because her sick body could not cope with the travelling involved touring local schools.
The voluntary worker at the Cupar cancer charity shop suffered from polycystic kidney disease (PKD)—a condition that claimed the life of her mother at the age of 44 and killed her aunt at 59.
She and husband Les were advised to restrict their family to just one child due to her maternal family history.
There was a concern there daughter Sarah (34) would develop the disease; however, tests have given her the all-clear.
After Carolann was diagnosed with PKD in 1991 she regularly attended Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where she says she received “wonderful treatment.”
However, nothing could prevent the inevitable decline of her kidney function, and it dropped to such a low level that three years ago she had to go on permanent dialysis.
The only hope of a return to normal life for people with failed kidneys is a transplant, but cadaver kidneys are few and far between and will never be sufficient to satisfy the demand.
Les volunteered to donate one of his kidneys to help his wife, but he was ruled out as incompatible.
Mrs Bushby rejected her daughter’s offer to go through testing for suitability.
“She was keen, but I said no,” she said.
Changes in the rules last year allowed what is known as “paired” kidney transplants.
Until then, living donor transplants occurred only between relatives or people with a close emotional relationship, such as couples living together.
The change allowed strangers to donate to each other, and couples are being matched up so they can swap suitable kidneys.
After three years on the waiting list for a cadaver transplant, the Bushbys were on the lookout for a suitable couple so Mr Bushby could donate his kidney to the sick partner on the understanding the recipient’s partner would give a kidney to his wife.
Mr Bushby was awaiting the outcome of tests when the phone rang on November 1 saying a suitable cadaver kidney was available.
Less than eight hours later Mrs Bushby was in an Edinburgh operating theatre having her transplant.
“I still can’t believe it has happened,” Mrs Bushby said, adding, “I cannot express how good it feels.
“It’s absolutely wonderful —I think life is going to open up for me again.”
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2007/12/22/newsstory10721722t0.aspPHOTO: Mr. and Mrs. Bushby
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