Mum’s kidney is still keeping me alive 39yrs after swap op
Medics thought it might last 5yrs
A TRANSPLANT patient who was 13 when she received a kidney from her mum has revealed it is still going strong 39 years on.
Diane Gough, 52, has now had the organ for exactly the same length of time as her mother did.
Docs said at the time of the lifesaving op in 1978 the organ would probably last five years. It is thought to be one of the longest surviving donated kidneys in Britain.
Diane said: “I am very, very lucky. Many patients go through two or three transplants in their life or go back on to dialysis.
“I want to say thanks for the past 40 years.
“I have had longer after my transplant than Marilyn Monroe lived. I have my mum and the NHS to thank for that.”
Diane was seven when she was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure. She was told both the organs would have to be removed otherwise they would poison her body.
She ended up in a coma for seven months and her parents had tests to see if they could be donors. Mum Ruth Johnson, then 39, said at the time: “She can’t stay on tablets much longer... she’s getting wearier.” Ruth is now 78.
Diane was on the front of the Mirror in 1982 with other youngsters who had kidney transplants at Guy’s Hospital in South London. The ops were made possible by cash donated by readers for medical equipment.
Mum-of-one Diane’s body could still reject the kidney. The care worker, of Clacton-onSea, Essex, takes medication to cut the risk.
Campaigners say someone in Britain dies every day waiting for a kidney transplant.
Diane backs the Mirror’s Change the Law for Life campaign, calling for everyone to have deemed to have consented to donate organs after death unless they opt out.