Transplant miracle Allison planning to be doctor herselfApr 9 2009 by Gregory Tindle, South Wales Echo
Medical student Allison John is the first person in Britain to have had all her major organs replaced. Greg Tindle discovers just what she’s gone through
AS budding doctor Allison John helps out on the ward rounds most patients would be amazed at just what the medical student has been through.
And when she finally qualifies, no-one but Allison should know more about the importance of a doctor’s bedside manner.
For Allison, 30, is living proof of the importance of organ donation, having received three massive transplants to replace her liver, heart and lungs and finally her kidneys.
All the transplants have proved a success and put her in the record books as the first person in the UK to have all her major organs replaced.
And during all of this Allison has herself helped save a life – donating her heart to a pensioner in Kent.
Despite all this disruption to her life, which started when she was just 17, Allison is now on course to eventually fulfil her dream and start work as a doctor.
Allison had embarked on her medical degree in 2001 and was four years into the five-year course when she had kidney failure and was forced into a three-year break to recover from her final transplant.
It’s only in the past few months that Allison has felt fit enough to resume her studies and is now well on course to complete the final stages of her degree in medicine at Cardiff University.
She said: “I haven’t felt so well for years. Since the kidney transplant I’ve got more energy and got my appetite back and like nothing better than a spicy Mexican meal.”
The kidney transplant carried out two-and-a-half years ago at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales was doubly special for Allison as the donor was her dad, David John, who was discovered to be a perfect match for his ailing daughter.
“When I had kidney problems I was losing a lot of weight, I couldn’t eat properly because everything tasted metallic, and I felt sick all the time and unable to drink very much.”
It was while she was convalescing from the transplant that Allison threw herself into voluntary work supporting the charity Kidney Foundation Wales and encouraging more people to sign up for the UK organ donor register.
But more recently she’s had to cut back on an almost daily routine of charity work to concentrate on her medical work.
“Studying medicine is a nine to five job and takes a lot of work but this is what I want to do. The aim of the kidney transplant was so I could get my life back on course and that’s just what I’m planning to do.”
Thankfully all Allison’s other transplanted organs are working well. “There are no problems at all and my body is generally much better since the kidney transplant but you can never tell what’s going to happen, some organs could be rejected at any point.”
To try to make sure this doesn’t happen Allison, of Kincraig Street, Roath, Cardiff, is still monitored very closely with hospital blood checks every two to three months. In the meantime Allison, 30, is working on the wards of the Royal Gwent Hospital as part of a placement scheme which is part of her training course.
Allison’s history of medical problems can all be traced back to her being born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes a variety of problems including clogging up the lungs with a thick mucus that can only be cleared by constant physiotherapy.
But this didn’t stop her from having a happy childhood, being brought up on her family farm in Fishguard, West Wales.
She said: “I was always a bit chesty but it never stopped me from taking part in sports, horse riding and singing in the choir.”
But all the time Allison’s liver was deteriorating and when she was 17 Allison faced a serious brush with death.
“I’d been on the waiting list for a liver transplant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge for 16 months and became very ill.
“I eventually received the transplant, which took about 11 hours, but only found out later from the doctors they had given me just two or three days to live.”
After a respite of a couple of years, when Allison was able to get on with her exams, a new and desperate crisis was heading her way and ironically her new problems were caused by the liver transplant. “Because I’d been on a general anaesthetic and ventilator for 11 hours, my lungs had been affected and that is a danger for cystic fibrosis patients.”
The diagnosis was that Allison needed a lung transplant and as this also involves the heart, this is what she received at the world- renowned transplant centre at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire. Her healthy heart was donated to a Kent pensioner.
But after an eight-year trouble-free respite, further problems were just around the corner and she was diagnosed with kidney failure in April 2005.
“Ironically dad was retired and had been a volunteer driver helping kidney dialysis patients to get to hospital, but the transplant worked brilliantly and within three days I was out of hospital.”
After all she’s been through, it’s no wonder Allison is a big supporter of the UK transplant donor register. “I would really encourage people to register – or just think about it. If others hadn’t done I certainly wouldn’t be here today.”
Allison’s story will be shown on S4C on Tuesday at 8.25pm and Sunday April 19 at 8pm. Wynebau Newydd: Stori Allison has English and Welsh subtitles
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health-news/2009/04/09/transplant-miracle-allison-planning-to-be-doctor-herself-91466-23344696/
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