New kidney 'changed my whole personality'

[okarol]

New kidney 'changed my whole personality'

Last Updated: 2:42am GMT 15/03/2008

A woman claims to have undergone a complete "personality transplant" after receiving a new kidney.

Cheryl Johnson, 37, says she has changed completely since receiving the organ in May. She believes that she must have picked up her new characteristics from the donor, a 59-year-old man who died from an aneurysm.

Now, not only has her personality changed, the single mother also claims that her tastes in literature have taken a dramatic turn. Whereas she only used to read low-brow novels, Dostoevsky has become her author of choice since the transplant.
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Miss Johnson, from Penwortham, in Preston, Lancs, said: "You pick up your characteristics from your donor. My son said when I first had the transplant, I went stroppy and snappy - that wasn't me.

"I have always loved books but I've started to read classics like Jane Austen and Dostoevsky. I found myself reading Persuasion."

The former Preston North End football steward's life has been turned round since her successful operation. After developing kidney problems in 1998, she had previously undergone every available form of dialysis as well as a failed transplant in 2001.

Miss Johnson added: "It's given my 16-year-old boy his mum back.

"I totally respect the family who gave me this kidney. They have given me the best thing they can - a chance for a normal life. I am forever grateful to them."

Academics in America have developed a theory called cellular memory phenomenon to explain the personality changes that are allegedly experienced by some transplant recipients.

Examples include a Massachusetts woman with vertigo who became a climber; a Milwaukee lawyer who began eating Snickers, having always hated chocolate; and a seven-year-old girl who had nightmares about being killed after being given the heart of a murdered child.

However, the only case recognised by the scientific community is that of a 15-year-old Australian girl whose blood type changed following a liver transplant.

UK Transplant also remains sceptical about the phenomenon. A spokesman said: "While not discarding it entirely, we have no reason to believe that it happens. We would be interested to see any definitive evidence that supports it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/15/nkidney115.xml

[jbeany]

And massive doses of drugs and steroids aren't possibly responsible for any of that?  How come that possibility is never mentioned?  Not as interesting to read about, I suppose.

[KT0930]

jb, are you referring to where she says she went "stroppy and snappy"? Here  , snappy means (basically) easily angered. I've never heard the term stroppy, though? The snappy, yeah, that's got to be the steroids. Not sure about reading the more high-brow novels, though. It all seems kind of odd to me.

[Meinuk]

If a new transplant works, your kidney function zooms to 50% of course your taste is going to change.  (just as your tastes change when your function declines)

I defy anyone not to meditate on the circumstances of their gift (on any level) when they receive an organ form a deceased donor.  It is a humbling experience on a psychological level.  Subconsciously one may romanticize their donor, and honor them by altering their own personality - they may not even be aware of it.  Becoming a risk taker, or wanting to further their education.  Human nature is an amazing thing.

A seven year old girl could easily surmise that her transplant came from a deceased doner.  Seven year olds can be really intuitive, yet emotionally immature and their drams may be a way of working out the trauma.

Transplants aren't magic, but they do affect the recipient on all levels, social, emotional, physical and metaphysical.  It is a lifesaving package deal.

[tamara]

If a new transplant works, your kidney function zooms to 50% of course your taste is going to change. (just as your tastes change when your function declines)

I defy anyone not to meditate on the circumstances of their gift (on any level) when they receive an organ form a deceased donor. It is a humbling experience on a psychological level. Subconsciously one may romanticize their donor, and honor them by altering their own personality - they may not even be aware of it. Becoming a risk taker, or wanting to further their education. Human nature is an amazing thing.

A seven year old girl could easily surmise that her transplant came from a deceased doner. Seven year olds can be really intuitive, yet emotionally immature and their drams may be a way of working out the trauma.

Transplants aren't magic, but they do affect the recipient on all levels, social, emotional, physical and metaphysical. It is a lifesaving package deal.

I disagree with one thing Transplants are  *** MAGIC ***     and the donor's Magicians !  I take my hat off to them  if only this bloody hat would come off ! 

[stauffenberg]

The phenomenon of cellular memory in transplant recipients has been noted only in connection with changes in tastes and preferences, not with changes in personality.  The phenomenon has been established by comparing the preferences of living donors with recipients of transplants from them who have adopted some of the same features as their donors.  For example, in my own case, I used to love chewing gum before my transplant, and then afterward I suddenly hated it, and have never chewed gum in the three years since then.  My penchant for chewing gum was well-established twenty years before I even developed kidney failure.  Later, when I checked with my living donor, I discovered that he had never liked chewing gum, so it seems natural to assume that this trait was somehow passed from him to me.

This idea seems difficult for people to accept because they unconsciously presuppose what philosophers call "the myth of cerebral localization," which assumes that all experience is based on what happens in the brain.  But in fact, through the interconnections of the nervous system and the constant movement of hormones and blood from one part of the body to another, your entire body is involved in what you think, feel, perceive, like, and dislike.  Since the kidneys produce many hormones that affect every part of the body, there is no reason they cannot affect the brain or the taste buds as well.