Pioneer operation saves donated kidney

Pioneer operation saves donated kidney
The Timaru Herald | Monday, 24 March 2008

Life before his kidney transplant had been tough so when Colin Good was told last year the transplanted kidney had cancer he started thinking the worst.

He was told the kidney would have to go but in a ground-breaking operation the Timaru man's kidney was retained allowing him to hang on to the good life.

Colin, 63, received his kidney transplant on April 17, 1994, after being on dialysis for around two years following renal failure.

"I saw my kidney arrive in a box of ice actually.

"The surgeon had to do a bit of plumbing work on it first."

He woke up from the transplant a new man.

"He was a completely different person, I got my husband back," his wife Jan said.

While there were a few more "plumbing " problems the first three months passed and his body had not rejected the organ.

"The first three months are critical. There had been a few bouts of rejection but I was okay.

"There was instant relief after the operation. On dialysis you itch like buggery but after the operation that had gone."

He had been on dialysis for up to seven hours a day, three times a week. He went from being limited in what he could do to having energy. He took immune-suppressant mediation to ensure his immune system did not reject the kidney and he got back to his hobbies and leading a full life.

He had enjoyed 12 years of reasonably good health with his new kidney when at the Wild Food Festival last year he started to feel unwell.

"I thought it was a stone in my bile duct, which I had had before."

However an ultra scan and MRI scan revealed it was papillary cancer of the kidney.

"The surgeon said to me you are going to lose that kidney and I was thinking I would be back on dialysis.

"He (the surgeon) talked to his Australian counterpart and rang me back that night and said there may be a chance he could just cut out the cancerous growth although it had never been done in Christchurch before.

"I was nervous and I knew there was a strong possibility it could reject."

Any small trauma could cause his kidney to reject, yet during the operation it was his bowe, tol which the transplanted kidney had attached, that went into shock for five days, while the kidney which had a quarter removed did not falter.

"I actually felt better after the operation than before."

If the kidney had rejected he would be looking at another four years before he could have another transplant and would only then be put on a five-year waiting list.

"With dialysis I would be alive, which is the main thing, but my quality of life would be nowhere as good ."

Colin is a living testament to the importance of organ donation and urges people to tell their families what they want to happen when they die.

"While it is on your licence if you are a donor, your family can still overide that. It is really important they know what you want to happen."

As the South Canterbury Kidney Support Group co-ordinator Colin will be in Ashburton College on April 11 at an Organ Donation Awareness telling his story of organ donation.

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