New kidney a ‘second chance’
Kiwis are not big on donating organs. With a bill aimed at increasing donation and transplant rates poised to become law, looks at those giving and receiving the gift of life.
Lynda McCallum describes it as her second life.
After a series of setbacks, the North Canterbury woman had started to resign herself to a life of dialysis, of a machine taking the place of her kidneys to cleanse her blood and keep her alive. Then the phone rang.
It was 10pm, late 2018, and a doctor was calling to say they had a suitable organ from a deceased donor. McCallum and her husband didn’t sleep that night. By the end of the next day, she had woken up in Christchurch Hospital with a new kidney.
Even then, it was still a matter of crossing her fingers, of hoping her body would accept its new member.
‘‘As time goes on your fingers slowly uncross,’’ she said. ‘‘For me, it’s about making the most of my second chance. It’s also about recognising that somebody’s life stopped for me to get this chance. I constantly think about the person that gave me this kidney.’’
More than 400 New Zealanders at any given time are waiting on a kidney transplant, according to figures provided by Organ Donation New Zealand. Many of them will be undergoing dialysis.
McCallum already knew her kidneys would fail when she was a teenager.
Her father had polycystic kidney disease – a disorder that causes cysts to grow inside the kidneys and eventually causes them to fail. There was a 50 per cent chance she would also also have the genetic disorder, McCallum said. A test at age 15 confirmed it.
Seeing her father undergo dialysis gave her some insight into what lay ahead, McCallum
DONATION BY THE NUMBERS
■ One donor can save the lives of up to 10 people.
■ More than 550 people are on the waiting list for an organ or tissue transplant.
■ In 2018, there were 62 deceased organ donors, which works out to a rate of roughly 13 per million
■ In 2017 that number was 73 – closer to 15 per million.
■ In 2018, donations included 28 lung transplants and 19 heart transplants.
■ Donors can donate both organs and tissue.
■ In 2018, there were 74 deceased tissue-only donors, donating eye tissue, heart valves and skin. Source: Organ Donation New Zealand
said, but when she was younger her own diagnosis faded into the background. It didn’t affect her day-to-day life. ‘‘I imagined myself getting into my 60s before my kidneys failed, but unfortunately I didn’t.’’
McCallum was placed on the deceased donor list when she was 50 and her kidney function had dropped to 15 per cent. Over the next two years, her condition worsened.
She was still working at Christchurch Airport as an administrator for an airline, but was exhausted all the time. Anything physical, like vacuuming a single room or working outside in the garden, was a struggle. ‘‘I was basically functioning like a zombie. When you talk about fatigue, it doesn’t matter how much you sleep, how much you rest . . . you never get rid of it.’’
McCallum had tried to put dialysis off, but when she was 52 and her kidney function had dropped to 5 per cent, she started a type of treatment that involves draining a solution in and out of
Lynda McCallum received a kidney from a deceased donor at the end of 2018.
the body through a permanent tube through the abdomen. The process takes nine hours overnight.
After developing an infection and ending up in hospital, McCallum switched to haemodialysis – a different form of dialysis where needles take and return blood to the body after passing it through a machine which filters out toxins and excess fluid.
Dialysis was a lonely process, McCallum said. She had three five-hour sessions a week at Christchurch Hospital for about 18 months before she was able to start doing it at home. ‘‘You can’t afford not to do it, because if you don’t do it, you’ve really only got two weeks to live,’’ she said. ‘‘They’re keeping you alive, but they’re not giving you back your complete life. They’re just giving you back a portion of it.’’
McCallum tried finding live donors who might give her a kidney. Her husband and four friends said they would, but testing ruled them out. And no luck in an
exchange programme where recipients and their ineligible donors are matched with other people in the same situation. She had two rejections through the programme. The second time she and her donor friend had booked airfares and accommodation in Auckland before a final blood test scuppered the match. The blow was ‘‘devastating’’.
It was after that experience, she and her husband started considering what would happen if McCallum never got a new kidney – how her being on dialysis indefinitely would impact their lives. Not long after they got the call. After recovering from her surgery, McCallum said she started to feel normal again. She could vacuum the house without feeling tired, plan holidays, and go out with friends without feeling like she would fall asleep. ‘‘You feel like you’re rejoining everybody. It definitely makes you look at life through different eyes. Things you may have taken for granted, you don’t take for granted anymore.’’
McCallum also thinks about her donor and their family – the massive difference their generosity has made to her life. She encouraged people who wanted to be organ donors to speak to their family. ‘‘There’s so many people waiting. Not everybody has the opportunity to find a donor. It’s a hard thing to do.’’
NEW LEGISLATION
A bill to improve access to organ donation has just passed its third reading in Parliament.
The bill is bipartisan, meaning it has the support of both the Government and the Opposition.
Its goal is to increase organ donation in New Zealand by improving levels of compensation for those who donate, and by establishing a new national organ agency to oversee donations.
This decision was made after consultation on the national strategy for increasing deceased organ donation found that an agency independent of District Health Boards should take on the role.
BEING AN ORGAN DONOR
If you want to put yourself in the position of saving someone’s life, don’t assume that just ticking a box on your driver’s licence seals the deal. It’s an indication of your interest only, not an official organ donation register.
The most important thing to do is talk to those closest to you about it, Organ Donation NZ’s Rebecca Oliver said. ‘‘If you are ever in a situation where donation is possible, a doctor will ask your family if they know whether you wanted to be a donor. If you’ve had a conversation about organ and tissue donation with your family, there’s nothing else you need to do.’’
Organ Donation NZ has a guide to what that conversation might look like.